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FINANCING THE 
WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 



FINANCING THE 
WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

A SURVEY OF THE FACTS BEARING ON 
INCOME AND EXPENDITURES IN THE 
FAMILIES OF AMERICAN WAGE-EARNERS 



BY 

SCOTT NEARING, Ph. D. 

Author of ** Wages in the United States," 
"The Super Race," etc. 




NEW YORK 

B. W. HUEBSCH 

1913 






^^> 



Copyright, 1913, 
By B. W. HUEBSCH 



JAN 15 1914 



PKINTBD IN D, S. A> 



'CI,A3G3157 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 5 

CHAPTER 

I. The Financing of a Workingman's Family. 

I The Problem of Family Finance 11 

II The Maximum of Wages 13 

III The Minimum of Wages 19 

IV Overwork 20 

V Sickness and Accidents 22 

VI The Invention of New Machinery 26 

VII The Shut-down of Individual Plants 27 

VIII Industrial Crises 28 

IX Supplementary Income Sources 32 

X The Minimum of Subsistence 36 

XI The Effects of Low Standards of Living .... 38 

XII Underfeeding 39 

XIII The Workingman's Dilemma 41 

II. The Standard of Living. 

I The Meaning of "Standard of Living" 44 

II Standard of Living Estimates 44 

III The Analysis of Individual Family Budgets ... 45 

IV The Averaging of Income and Expenditure ... 47 

V "Goods" as a Basis for Study 54 

VI The Elements in a Standard of Living 55 

VII The Requirements of Specific Items in a Standard of 

Living 57 

yill The Chapin and Federal Studies 61 

IX The Minimum Standard of Living 63 

X Tlie Fair or Normal Standard 70 

XI The Value of the "Goods" Standard 80 

III. The Cost of a Standard of Living. 

I The Problem of Costs 82 

II The Cost of the Minimum Standard 82 

III The Cost of a Fair Standard of Living .... 89 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IV. Income and Standards of Living. 

I Income and Family Standards 98 

II Sources of Family Income 99 

III The Income of Adult Males 101 

IV Contributions of Women and Children to Family 

Income 108 

V Percentage of Family Income Derived from Various 

Sources Ill 

VI Incomes and Standards in Fall River, Massachusetts 116 
VII The Family Standard 119 

V. The American Wage-Earner and Living Standards. 

I The Issue Before the Wage-Earner 121 

II The Necessity for an Efficiency Standard of Living 122 

III The Determination of an Efficiency Standard . . . 124 

IV The Cost of a Standard of Living 124 

V The Wages of Adult Males 126 

VI Family Income and the Standard of Living . . .128 

VII The Problem of the Wage-Earner 129 

VIII The Need for Local Investigation 130 

Appendix. Individual Family Budgets. 

I The Value of Family Budgets 133 

II A Minimum New York City Budget 133 

III The Budget of a Typical American Family . . .139 

IV Mill Town Budgets 143 

V Variations in Family Incomes . .i >: . . . .163 
VI Making Both Ends Meet .. .. .., > .. >: . . . 167 



INTRODUCTION 

The statement made in 1911, that, in the indus- 
tries east of the Eockies and north of the Mason and 
Dixon line, ^^Half of the adnlt males are earning less 
than $500 a year; that three-quarters of them are 
earning less than $600 annually; that nine-tenths are 
receiving less than $800 a year ; while less than ten 
per cent, receive more than that figure''^ called 
forth considerable comment. On the one hand, it 
was met with surprise and occasionally with in- 
credulity and ridicule. On the other hand, it evoked 
a chorus of, ^^I told you so's," from the radical re- 
viewers. This latter group, in particular, generally 
linked a brief quotation from Chapin which ap- 
peared in the Introduction, with the conclusions 
stated in the last chapter of the book. This com- 
parison between wages in a large section of the 
United States and Chapin 's statement that ''a> New 
York family consisting of a man, wife and three 
children under fourteen could maintain a normal 
standard, at least so far as the physical man is con- 
cerned, on an annual income of $900,''^ was unfor- 
tunate, if not absurd. The wage figure covered a 
wide area. Chapin referred to New York city alone. 

1 Scott Nearing, Wages in the United States, p. 213. The Mac- 
millan Co., Kew York, 1911. 

2 Ibid, p. iii. 



6 INTRODUCTION 

Though this comparison was unjustifiable, it em- 
phasized the need of a study which should make a 
similar comparison possible. The answer to the 
question, ^^What are wages?" is, after all, only one 
step to the more fundamental question, ''What will 
these wages buy?'^ 

Consciously or unconsciously, most families do 
some rough budget making. Among well-to-do fam- 
ilies, budgets are made for a year. Among families 
with less income, or with less foresight, they are 
made by the month, or even by the week. Available 
income is placed against necessary or desired expen- 
ditures, and the expenditures are pared down until 
they will fit the income. Families which make no 
such effort to compare income and outgo, are usually 
described as ''happy-go-lucky" or "shiftless." 
Even though the budget is a crude one, the consen- 
sus of opinion demands that it be made. 

Economic changes seriously affect the budget 
problem. Consider for example the effect on family 
budgets of the movement into large towns and cities. 
The family moving from a rural to an urban home 
must completely readjust its budgetry arrange- 
ments. Eent, which was a negligible item in the 
country (perhaps ten per cent, of the income) may 
jump to fifteen, twenty, or even thirty per cent, in 
the city. Free goods disappear. There are no fish 
and berries in the summer, no squirrels, rabbits, 
pheasants or deer in the winter. There is no kitchen 
garden. Chickens, ducks, pigs, cows — all were left 
behind in the country. Each want is supplied at a 



INTRODUCTION 7 

price. The family facing this transformation must 
reorganize its budget. 

Where family budgets made on paper and sub- 
ject to annual or monthly scrutiny and revision by 
the members of the family group, this alteration in 
budgetry needs would make no material difference, 
since the budget could easily be rewritten. But 
family budgets are not so made. Tradition says, 
*^We pay so much for food, so much for clothes, so 
much for coal, and each week, so much goes in the 
old cup for the rent." The sway of such forces is 
effective for years in preventing any adequate reor- 
ganization of the family budget. 

Tradition holds another form which is equally dis- 
astrous to the making of an adequate budget. Peo- 
ple take it for granted that ''a dollar and a half a 
day'' is a fair wage. Why should the wage be fixed 
at a dollar and a half? Because twenty or thirty 
years ago a man living in a village could support 
his family very decently on that amount. Is a dol- 
lar and a half sufficient to-day? An appeal to the 
family budget furnishes the only answer. The im- 
migrant has worked in Italy for sixty cents a day. 
Will a dollar and a half not provide a princely liv- 
ing, and allow for saving at the same time? Write 
it into a budget and see ! Tradition fixes the wage, 
however, without even considering budgetry needs. 

The rapid, far-reaching economic changes of the 
past fifty years have played havoc with the old order. 
The face of industrial America has been reshaped in 
these two generations and the men who are engaged 



INTEODUCTION 

in pursuits other than agriculture have become town 
dwellers. This alteration in economic status has 
involved the reestablishment of an equilibrium be- 
tween income and expenditure, without which stable 
family life is impossible. What is that equilibrium? 
What amount of money wage is required to purchase 
the housing, food, clothing, fuel and other items of 
normal family consumption? What relation at 
present exists between income and expenditure? 

The answers to such queries lead directly into a 
study of standards of living. Already these fields 
have been excellently covered. Streightoff has pre- 
pared an especially good analysis of the elements in 
a standard of living; Chapin and the Federal inves- 
tigation of 1907-09 provide first-hand studies of 
standards; the reports of the Federal and State 
bureaus of Labor, together with a number of other 
less valuable sources furnish an excellent ground- 
work. The following chapters lay one tier of de- 
ductions in a superstructure which shall determine 
the economic status of the American wage-earner. 

Let no one imagine that the conclusions or infer- 
ences here presented are final. They will be revised 
and reformulated many times before the facts are 
established. The time is, however, ripe for a state- 
ment of the ground already covered. It remains for 
more elaborate, publicly financed investigations to 
determine, accurately, the present status of the 
American wage-earner's family budget. 



FINANCma THE WAGE- 
EARNERS S FAMILY 

CHAPTEE I 

The Fikanciitg of a Woekikgman's Family 

Z. The Problem of Family Finance. 

Neaely every family in the United States is striv- 
ing to bring about a satisfactory adjustment between 
income and wants, because nearly every family has 
more wants than its income will supply. The well- 
to-do family is forced to choose between different 
kinds of luxuries. A family may want, for example, 
an automobile, a riding horse, a month at the shore, 
and a sleeping porch ; the income is sufficient to pro- 
vide only one of these things, and, therefore, a 
decision must be made between them. The neces- 
saries of life are taken for granted by such a family, 
but the problem of the luxuries is always difficult of 
solution. The man who is supporting a family on 
$25 a week, however, is concerned mainly with the 
necessaries of living. The first family is called upon 
to choose the way in which it will spend its surplus ; 
the second family strains every nerve to prevent a 
deficit. It is with families of the second class that 

this study deals. 

11 



12 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

A standard of living is a very abstract and gen- 
eral concept, covering all of the elements of income 
and expenditure for a large class of persons, yet 
beneath every workingman's bed and beside his 
workbench lurks a phantom — ^the fear of misery, 
want, hardship, poverty, and starvation. At the mo- 
ment when he assumes family responsibilities, that 
phantom takes shape, never to vanish until elevation 
to a higher income sphere, or death comes to his 
relief. The individual workingman, in his own 
home, and at his own work must finance his family 
— must provide for them the wherewithal to pur- 
chase the necessaries, and if possible, a few of the 
comforts of life ; must set aside enough for the emer- 
gencies, which in the form of birth or death, sick- 
ness, accident or unemployment may confront him 
at any time; must provide for them against all of- 
the uncertainties and vicissitudes of life; must, to 
the best of his ability, erect around them a bulwark 
of income which the phantom cannot scale. This 
workingman — this individual member of the human 
race — must battle successfully with hardship and 
misfortune or else he must witness the sufferings of 
those dearest to him. 

Unfortunately, it is impossible in a study of large 
groups of facts to maintain an individual, human 
viewpoint, nevertheless, it behooves the student to 
remember that behind his statistics and diagrams, 
there are individual families, containing individual 
men and women, who are struggling hourly to place 
or to keep their finances on a solvent basis. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 13 

II. The Maximum of Wages. 

Two stubbornly persistent facts confront the 
American workingman who is financing a family : 

1. The maximum amount of income which he, as a 

workingman, may earn is definitely limited. 

2. The minimum amount of expenditure necessary 

for the maintenance of his existence is rigidly 
established. 

Although the propositions sound obvious, the 
grave issues involved in these two simple statements 
of the relations between income and expenditure are 
not always clearly perceived. 

The maximum amount of income which the work- 
ingman may earn is limited. To be sure, there is 
always a possibility of the workingman rising out 
of the ranks of the workers and becoming a manager 
or a capitalist. The existence of this chance to rise 
has never been questioned, though its mathematical 
boundaries are not always understood. Consider, 
for example, one of the greatest single industries in 
the United States, the Eailroad Industry,^ employ- 
ing nearly a million and three-quarters of men.^ 
What are the possibilities for advancement in this 
industry as shown by the statistics of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission? 

There were, in 1910, 5,476 general officers directing 
the activities of the million and three-quarters em- 

1 Statistics of Railways in the United States. The Interstate Com- 
merce Commission, Washington, 1910. 

2 In 1910 the number was 1,699,420. 



14 FINANCING THE :^AGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

ployes. Therefore, in the business life of the gen- 
eral officer and the business life of the employe, each 
employe should have one chance in three hundred 
of becoming a general officer at some time during 
his life, provided that the employes live as long as 
the general officers, and provided further that all 
the general officers are drawn from the ranks of the 
employes. Neither of these assumptions, however, 
is correct, because, in the first place, insurance tables 
indicate that the life of the general officer is some- 
what longer than the life of the average working- 
man.^ In the second place, the general officers are 
not always drawn from the ranks. Leaving these 
two considerations out of account, however, it is ap- 
parent that the mathematical probability that the 
average railroad employe will become a general 
officer is about one-third of one per cent. 

Consider another phase of the situation. Suppose 
that you are a railroad trainman. Mathematically, 
you have one chance in three hundred of becoming a 
general officer at some time during your life. On the 
other hand, you have one chance in twenty of being 
injured, and one chance in one hundred and twenty 
of being killed during each year that you are at work. 

Supposing that your total term of service is 
twenty years, the chances are one to one that during 
that time you will be injured, and one to six that 

s At every age the death-rate for the industrial workers exceeds 
that for the middle class man. At the later ages, the rate is double* 
See Abb. Landis, Friendly Societies and Fraternal Orders, p. 149, 
1006; J. R. Hegeman, Industrial Insurance in "Insurance," edited by 
W. A. Fricke, p. 240, 1898. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 15 

during that time you will be killed ; so that the chance 
of your being injured is three hundred times as 
great, and of your being killed is fifty times as great 
as your chance of becoming a general officer in the 
company which is employing you. 

A similar condition exists in the manufacturing 
industriesjr The Census Bureau reports that in 1909 
there were 7,678,578 persons engaged in manufactur- 
ing in the United States. Six in each hundred of 
these persons were '^proprietors and officials"; 8 
in each hundred were clerks, and 86 were wage-earn- 
ers. In some industries, the percentage of wage- 
earners falls as low as 56 per cent. In others, it 
rises to 98 per cent. In general, those industries 
which may be run with small capital and on a small 
scale show a smaller percentage of wage-earners 
than the great socialized industries in which a large 
capital must be invested, and in which expensive 
machinery is depended upon for a great portion of 
the work.^ 

Eeporting on the emplojrment of 172,706 persons 
in the iron and steel industry, the United States 
Commission of Labor writes^ — '^ Taking the em- 
ployes in all occupations in the industry, nearly 60 
per cent, are foreign-born, and nearly two-thirds of 
the foreign-born are of the Slavic races. Large as 
is the proportion that unskilled labor forms of the 

4 Manufacturers in the Z7. 8, Advance Bulletin of Statistics for 
1909, p. 15, Washington, 1910. 

5 Summary of the Wages and Hour of Labor in the Iron and Steel 
Industry, p. 10. Senate Doc. 301, 62nd Congress, 2nd Session, Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, Washington, 1912, p. 10. 



16 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

total labor force in the iron and steel industry, steel 
experts have noted the fact that the tendency of 
recent years has been steadily toward the reduction 
of the number of highly skilled men employed and 
the establishment of the general wage on the basis 
of common or unskilled labor. Nor is this tendency 
likely to diminish, since each year sees a wider use 
of mechanical appliances which unskilled labor can 
easily be trained to handle." The situation in 
manufacturing differs little from that in railroading. 
In both cases, the organization of industry is such 
that there are a few managers and many wage-earn- 
ers — a proportion which must be maintained so long 
as the present system of specialized industry per- 
sists. 

In short, the tendency of modern industry is to- 
ward a form of organization which will require the 
wage-worker to remain a wage-worker. The rail- 
road does not expect a brakeman to become president 
or general manager, but instead, to become a con- 
ductor. In the same way, section hands make 
section foremen, and locomotive firemen make loco- 
motive engineers. The railroad manager is not 
looking for an engineer who will make a general 
superintendent, but for an engineer who will be and 
will remain a good engineer. 

The chance to rise cannot affect the problem of 
wage-earners' family finance, first because it is so 
mathematically inconsiderable as to reduce it to the 
absurd, and second because the workingman who 
rises ceases to be a workingman, and hence passes 



FINANCING A WOEKINGMAN'S FAMILY 17 

out of the large group of always-to-be workingmen 
who form the subject of this discussion. 

Modern industry is so organized that the locomo 
tive engineer, bricklayer, carpet weaver, railroad] 
carpenter, blacksmith, press feeder, machinist or 
cigar roller at thirty can determine pretty definitely, 
first that he will remain a wage-earner during the 
remainder of his life, and second what his wages for 
the rest of his working life will be. The fact that 
he is a wage-earner carries with it the necessary as- 
sumption that the maximum amount which he may 
earn is definitely fixed by — 

1. The amount which he produces; 

2. Custom; 

3. Cost of replacement; 

4. Trade unions. 

No industry could survive which paid more in 
wages than its workers created in product. On the 
other hand, there is no force impelling the industry 
to pay to the workingman all that he produces. On 
the contrary, custom limits his income drastically* 
In a given district, farmers pay $30 a month for 
labor, irrespective of the amount which this labor 
produces, and so long as they can secure labor for 
$30 they will never pay $35. In other words, they 
will pay as much wages as they are compelled to pay 
in order to get help, and excepting that they 
cannot pay a man more than he produces, the amount 
of his product plays no part in fixing his wages. 
Even in piece work, the piece rate is fixed at a point 




18 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

where tlie worker can earn a ^^fair/' that is, a cns- 
tomary wage. If the worker becomes so expert that 
he can produce a greater number of pieces, the piece 
rate is cut to a point which will pnt him back to a 
^^ customary'^ wage.^ Not the amount which a la- 
borer produces, but the cost of replacing him by an 
equally efficient laborer, determines his wage. This 
principle has been rigorously applied in the replace- 
ment of native-born by foreign-born and of higher 
standard by lower standard groups of immigrants. 
In the sweated trades, in the slaughtering industry 
and the steel industry, the man or woman who will 
work the cheapest gets the job, irrespective of na- 
tionality or sex."^ Thus, while the total amount of 
product fixes an unalterable maximum to wages, 
custom and the cost of getting someone else to do 
the work fix the actual wage scale. 

Trade unions, in spite of their efforts to ward off 
the danger, by fixing a minimum wage, virtually fix 
a maximum as well. Theoretically, they do not level 
down the able man to the standard of his fellows, but 
practically wage scales have usually worked out in 
that way. 

Therefore, by consulting the wage statistics of his 

« J. A. Fitch, Steel Workers, Charities Publication Committee, 
New York, 1910. E. B. Butler, Woman and the Trades, Charities 
Publication Committee, New York, 1910. Charles Stelzle, Letters 
from a Workingman, Revell, New York, 1908. 

7 Peter Egberts, The New Pittshurgers, Vol. II, p. 533, Charities 
and the Commons, New York, Jan. 2, 1909. C. D. Wright, Influence 
of Trade Unions on Immigrants, pp. 1-8, Bulletin 56, U. S. Bureau of 
Labor, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1905. Report of the 
Industrial Commission, General Index, Vol. 19, Government Printing 
Office, Washington, 1902. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 19 

industry and his locality, the miner, at thirty, can 
determine that during the coming twenty years his 
earnings will probably not exceed $600 a year; the 
cotton weaver, that his earnings will probably not 
exceed $700 annually; the railroad conductor, that 
he will not earn more than $125 a month. In each 
trade, the maximum is fixed, and though wages may 
be gradually rising, the increase is not sufficient, 
over a period of twenty years to warrant a man in 
expecting any great change in the status of his in- 
come. 

III. The Minimum of Wages. 

While the maximum amount which a workingman 
may earn is thus definitely fixed, there is no cor- 
responding minimum below which his wages may 
not fall. The forces which determine the most that 
a man may earn are balanced by an equally potent 
group of forces acting continually, which may deter- 
mine, either that he shall earn less than at present, 
or else that he shall earn nothing at all. While the 
maximum of income is certain, there is no sure min- 
imum of income except zero. 

There are five factors, continually operating in 
industrial society, any one of which may reduce or 
entirely eliminate income. These factors are: 

1. Overwork; 

2. Sickness and accidents; 

3. Labor-saving inventions ; 

4. Shut-downs of industrial plants; 

5. Industrial crises. 



20 FINANCING T^HE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

IV. Overwork. 

Under the strain incident to overwork, a man may 
break down at forty and be discharged because he 
is physically or nervously unable to continue with 
his duties. Modern industry is run at a terrific 
speed which leads inevitably to a shortened working 
life, or a decreasing efficiency. This speeding proc- 
ess in one of the greatest of American industries — 
the steel industry — is thus described by Fitch: 

^^The steel mills to-day offer an excellent demon- 
stration of the theory of the survival of the fittest. 
The steel workers are men of strong, steady consti- 
tutions; they must be, for when they begin to fail 
they cease to be steel workers. Often I was told 
by workmen of forty and forty-five that they had 
been at their best at thirty years of age, and that 
at thirty-five they had begun to feel a perceptible 
decline in strength.^ 

^^We have noted the speeding-up system in all 
its ramifications; the ^pushers,' who drive the com- 
mon laborers ; the gang system at the furnaces and 
at the rolls, which, combined with the tonnage sys- 
tem of payment, makes the steel blooms and billets 
do their own driving; the cash rewards given to the 
foremen and superintendents in the Corporation 
mills for helping to keep up the tension ; and, finally, 
the judicious cuts from time to time in the rate of 
pay per ton, which make the men put forth the last 

s John A. Fitch, The Steel Workers, pp. 183-184, Charities Publi- 
cation Committee, New York, 1911. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 21 

ounce of energy to prevent a wage loss. All these, 
together with the heat and the danger of accident, 
result in overstrain and exhaustion, both mental and 
physical. ' ' ^ 

Such a system clearly places a premium on youth 
and vigor and a serious handicap on age. This 
fact the companies are not slow to recognize. They 
do not want old men on their pay-rolls — and they 
say so, clearly and emphatically. A few years ago 
a general order was reported to have been sent 
from headquarters to all mills of the Carnegie Steel 
Company directing the superintendents to accept no 
more men over forty years of age in any depart- 
ment, and in some departments to hire only men 
of thirty-five and under. In the rules for its pen- 
sion department adopted January 1, 1902, the 
American Steel and "Wire Company has this pro- 
vision: ^^No inexperienced person over thirty-five 
years of age and no experienced person over forty- 
five years of age shall hereafter be taken into the 
employ of the company. ' ' ^^ 

Men are expected to go to pieces before reaching 
normal old age. The pace is set high, and those 
who cannot keep it, must drop out or take less 
lucrative positions. The conditions in the steel in- 
dustry may sound exceptionally bad, yet recent 
studies have revealed, everywhere, an astonishing 
amount of overwork and fatigue. 

There seems to be little question that there is an 
intimate connection between overwork and physical 

» Ibid., p. 201. 10 Ibid., p. 84. 



22 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

decadence. Fisher writes: ^^The relatively slight 
impairment of efficiency due to overfatigue leads to 
more serious impairment. ... A typical succession 
of events is first fatigue, then colds, then tubercu- 
losis, then death.'' ^^' Yet, "the economic waste 
from undue fatigue is probably much greater than 
the waste from serious illness.'' ^^The number that 
suffer partial disability through undue fatigue cer- 
tainly constitute the great majority of the popula- 
tion." ^^ 

Small wonder, in view of these facts that Dr. 
Devine describes overwork and its consequent fa- 
tigue as '^the one great overshadowing injury of 
the present day,"^^ an injury from which every 
workman in every speeded-up industry necessarily 
suffers — an injury which decreases his individual 
chance of keeping up his income to a level of decent 
living. 

V. Sichness and Accidents. 

Sickness and accidents are constant factors which 
deprive the workingman of his wages. We have no 
means of knowing how prevalent sickness is. Ir- 
ving Fisher attempts an estimate based on the vital 
statistics of England, that, ^' There are probably at 
all times about 3,000,000 persons seriously ill," in 
the United States. ''This means an average of 

11 Irving Fisher, 'National Efficiency, p. 47, Government Printing 
Office, Washington, 1909. 

12 Idem. 

13 Edward T. Devine, Social Forces, p. 82, Charities Publication 
Committee, New York, 1910. 



FINANCING A WOEKINGMAN'S FAMILY 23 

thirteen days per annum for each inhabitant." ^^ 
The estimate covers only serious illness. In judg- 
ing the sum total of sickness, it is, therefore, neces- 
sary to add the sickness from minor ailments, which 
probably cause the average ^'well man" to lose from 
three to five days each year.^^ 

An intensive study of the effect of disease on wage- 
earning capacity was made in connection with The 
Pittsburgh Survei/. The results of typhoid fever 
in 338 families are truly astonishing. Of the 2,045 
individuals in these families, 248 or 22 per cent, 
had typhoid fever within the year. There were 26 
deaths and 422 recoveries. Of the 448 patients, 187 
were wage-earners, who lost an aggregate of 1901 
weeks (36.6 years) in working time, and $23,573.15 
in wages. Other wage-earners lost 322 weeks ^ work 
and $3,326.50 in wages, while caring for patients. 
In addition there were heavy expenses for medi- 
cines, doctors, funerals and the like. If these 448 
cases are a fair sample of typhoid cases, the 5,421 
cases which occurred in Pittsburgh during 1907, cost 
the people of that city $693,000 in expenses and loss 
of wages alone.^^ 

Such fragmentary evidence indicates the nature of 
the problem which the workingman faces in the form 
of sickness. No less acute is the problem confront- 
ing him in the form of industrial accidents. It is 
probable that the number of industrial accidents 

14 National Vitality, p. 34, op. cit. 

15 Ibid., p. 39. 

16 Feank E. Wing, Thirty-five years of Typhoid, p. 928, Charities 
and the Commons, Feb. 6, 1909. 



24 FINANCING THE WAGE-EAENER'S FAMILY 

(deaths and injuries) wliicli occur annually in tHe 
United States is about half a million.^'^ Frederick 
L. Hoffman feels himself justified in the statement 
that ^^the actual number of fatal accidents among 
occupied males in 1908, is probably somewhere be- 
tween 30,000 and 35,000.'' ^^ If the same relation 
between the numbers of fatal and non-fatal acci- 
dents exists in the United States as that found in 
New York State, in England and in Germany (i. e. 
5 per cent, fatal and 95 per cent, non-fatal) then the 
number of non-fatal accidents in the United States 
must be approximately 600,000 each year.^^ 

These accidents happen to men in the prime of 
life, hence, by inference, to the men who are sup- 
porting young families. The deaths from 126,567 
accidents in the United States 1900 to 1906, were 
distributed, according to age, as follows : ^^ 

Percentage of 
Age of death. total accidents. 

15 to 24 years 19 

25 to 35 years 23 

35 to 44 years 21 

45 to 54 years 15 

55 to 64 years 10 

65 years and over 12 

100% 

While these statistics^ refer to all accidents, the 
data secured by Miss Eastman for industrial acci- 

17ARTHUE B. Reeve, The Death Roll of Industry, vol. 17, p. 795, 
Charities and the Commons, 1907. 

18 Bulletin 78, U. S. Bureau of Labor, p. 418, Government Print- 
ing Office, Washington, 1908. 

19 Ibid., pp. 420-1. 

20 Ibid., p. 422. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 25 

dents in Pittsburgh shows that there, at least, the 
age at which deaths from accidents occur is lower 
than in the United States at large. Dnring the 
year of her investigation, 526 wage-earners were 
killed in Allegheny County. The age at death of 
this group was: ^i 

Age. Per cent. 

Under 21 16 

21 to 30 42 

31 to 40 26 

40 and over 16 

100% 

Thus for all accidental deaths in the country at 
large, sixty-three in each hundred occurred to per- 
sons under 45, while in the industries of Pittsburgh 
eighty-four in each hundred of wage-earners died at 
40 or under — ^in the prime of life. 

That these accidents make serious inroads on 
family income is indicated by an analysis of the 
economic responsibilities which were being carried 
by the 467 persons killed in Allegheny County from 
July, 1906, to July, 1907, for whom reliable data 
could be secured. Of this group there were: 

1, Married — 258, 

A. With one or more children under 16 206 

B. Without children under 16 49 

C. Age of children unknown 3 

2, Single— 209, 

A. Sole support of family 19 

B. Chief support of family 20 

C. Begular contributors 90 

D. Non-contributors 80 

21 Crystal Eastman, A Yearns Work Accidents and their Cost, p. 
1146, Charities and the Commons, March 6, 1909. 



26 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Thus in 297 or 63 per cent, of the families, the per- 
son killed was the sole, or chief contributor to family 
income.^^ 

Both sickness and accidents are prevalent, and 
both, by destroying life, by causing unemployment 
and by temporarily or permanently impairing effi- 
ciency, lower the earning power of the worker. 

VI. The Invention of New Machinery. 

The invention of new machinery is a constant 
menace to regularity of employment. "While the 
percentage of the total working force, affected by 
such labor replacements, is small at any one time, 
the individual laborers in each instance are none 
the less completely deprived for the time being of 
the means of livelihood. If the changes occur sud- 
denly, as in the case of the industrial revolution and 
the rapid growth of the factory system in the latter 
part of the eighteenth and the early years of the nine- 
teenth centuries, the suffering and misery entailed 
are terrific.^^ If the changes occur more slowly, as 
during the nineteenth century, the outcome is less 
dramatic, but in individual cases, none the less 
tragic.^^ 

22 Crystal Eastmatt, "Worh Accidents and the Law, pp. 119-20, 
Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1910. 

23 H. deB Gibbins, Industry in England, Charles Scribner's Sons, 
New York, 1907. 

24 D. A. Wells, Recent Economic Changes, Appleton, New York, 
1889. J. G. Brooks, The Social Unrest, Macmillan, New York, 1903. 
''Machinery" in the Report of the Industrial Commission, vols. 7, 8, 
14 and 15, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1902. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 27 



VII. The Shut'doivn of Individual Plants. 

Loss of work is frequently entailed by the shut- 
down of individual industries or plants. Businesses 
are continnally failing, or closing temporarily for 
repairs. Strikes occur at irregular intervals. In 
many industries the season during which the de- 
mand for labor is active, is comparatively short. 
One or all of these factors may operate to deprive 
the workingman temporarily of his wages. A very 
fair summary of the problem is presented by the 
New York Labor Department.^^ The causes of idle- 
ness at the end of March, as reported by the trade 
unions, were as follows: 

Cause. 1904. 1907. 1910. 

Lack of work 33.3 67.3 66.8 

Lack of stock 1.2 2.4 4.2 

Weather 35.2 20.0 11.7 

Labor disputes 24.7 5.2 10.9 

Disability 3.8 4.6 6.1 

Other reasons 1.5 0.4 0.1 

Eeason not stated 0.3 0.1 0.2 

100.00 100.0 100.0 

In 1904, strikes were responsible for a quarter of the 
unemployment ; in 1907 and 1910, the great mass of 
unemployment, about two-thirds, was due to lack of 
work; while, as would be expected, the weather is 
constantly responsible for a considerable amount 
of unemployment, practically all of which is due to 
causes beyond the control of the individual laborer. 

25 Bulletin No. 44, New York State Department of Labor, p. 171, 
June, 1910. 



28 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Even more striking are the figures showing sea- 
sonal variation in nnemployment. At certain sea- 
sons of the year, the possibilities of employment are 
much greater than at other seasons. Some trades, 
like building and construction work, cannot be suc- 
cessfully carried forward in the winter months, and 
are, therefore, distinctly seasonal. Other trades, 
while less noticeably seasonal, are affected by the 
seasons. 

The extent to which shut-downs occur during a 
normally prosperous year is indicated by the Census 
Bureau in its report on manufactures for 1905. Of 
the 216,262 establishments reporting to this Bureau 
in 1905 2^ 

Days in Operation. 

11,494 ( 5.3%) 90 or less 

22,091 ( 10.2% ) 91 to 180 

27,666 (12.8%) 181 to 270 

67,492 (31.2%) 271 to 300 

87,520 (40.5%) 301 to 366 

As there are 307 working days in the year, it ap- 
pears that in a year of considerable prosperity 
(1904) three-fifths of all of the manufacturing in- 
dustries in the United States worked less than a full 
year (300 days), while a third of all them worked 
less than 270 days. 

VIII. Industrial Crises. 

During the nineteenth century, the industrial 
world has been periodically upset by a series of in- 
dustrial depressions which have caused widespread 

26 Census of Manufacturers, Part I, pp. 542-3, 1905. 



FINANCING A WOEKINGMAN'S FAMILY 29 

unemployment. During these depressions, even the 
ablest workingmen are unable to secure employment 
of any kind. If the depression is prolonged and 
widespread, conditions of livelihood may remain un- 
certain during months or even years. An excellent 
idea of the effect of industrial depressions upon 
wage-earners may be gained from an examination 
of the employment in mines. The figures for min- 
ing show only the number of days which the mines 
worked, making, therefore, no allowance for the un- 
employment due to sickness and accidents to the 
individual.^'^ 

Total numljer of days during which the coal mines were idle, 
1890-1910. 

United States Pennsylvania 

Bituminous. Anthracite. 

Year. Days idle. Days idle. 

1890 80 106 

1891 83 103 

1892 87 108 

1893 102 109 

1894 135 116 

1895 112 110 

1896 114 132 

1897 110 156 

1898 56 154 

1899 72 133 

1900 72 140 

1901 81 110 

1902 76 190 

1903 81 100 

1904 104 106 

1905 95 91 

1906 93 Ill 

1907 72 86 

1908 113 106 

1909 89 75 

1910 95 60 

27 Scott Nearing, The Extent of Unemployment in the United 
States, p. 538, American Statistical Association, Boston, Mass., 1909. 



30 FINANCING THE WAGE-EAENER'S FAMILY 

Figures collected by tlie New York Bnrean of 
Labor for the building trades and for the unionized 
trades of New York State, show a similar condition 
of affairs.^^ 

Percentage of members of labor unions idle at the end of September, 

Per cent. 
Year. idle. 

1897 13.8 

1898 13.1 

1899 4.7 

1900 13.3 

1901 6.9 

1902 5.7 

1903 9.0 

1904 9.7 

1905 4.9 

1906 5.7 

1907 10.5 

1908 22.5 

1909 10.3 

An analysis of these two series of figures shows 
that unemployment at certain periods is very much 
more severe than at others. These fluctuations have 
occurred and still do occur with alarming regular- 
ity.29 

Industry offers the workingman an opportunity 
to earn a living, subject to the caprice of overwork, 
sickness, accidents, new machinery, individual shut- 
downs and general suspensions of industrial activ- 
ity — a hierarchy of forces which overshadow every 
movement of his life, threatening continually to hurl 
against him the phantom of misery. 

28 Bulletin 43, New York State Department of Labor, p. 12, March, 
1910. 

29 W. H. Be\T5RIDGe, Unemployment, Ch. 4, Longmans, Green, & 
Co., London, 1909. Sidney J. Chapman, Work and Wages, p. 317, 
Longmans, Green, & Co., London, 1908. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 31 

Any one, or any combination of these five 
forces, may, at any time, diminish, temporarily or 
permanently, the income-earning capacity of the 
worker. All of them are beyond his individual con- 
trol, yet they strike, with merciless certainty, the 
source of livelihood of the family in which they oc- 
cur. 

Overwork, sickness, accidents, inventions, individ- 
ual shut-downs and industrial crises are potent 
factors in the financing of a family, since they result 
in diminishing or extinguishing income, temporarily 
or permanently. Nevertheless, overwork, sickness, 
accidents and inventions are accidental factors since 
they occur to the individual at unpredictable inter- 
vals. Considerable space has been devoted to them 
in an attempt to show their far-reaching influence, 
yet since they represent the unusual, rather than the 
usual, they will be dismissed from the study at this 
point, and the workingman with a normal quota of 
health and vigor will alone be considered. Such an 
assumption must brush aside all objections to the 
effect that the analysis deals with abnormal condi- 
tions. Again, the conclusions based on such an as- 
sumption will necessarily represent a conservative 
rather than an extreme estimate, an end most de- 
sirable in all scientific studies. Unemployment is 
measurable and must still be dealt with in connection 
with wages. From this point on, therefore, the 
workingman under consideration, will be a man of 
ordinary vigor and health, suffering from no dis- 
ability, like old age, fatigue, accident or sickness. 



32 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

IX. Supplementary Income Sources. 

Whatever the limitations on the earning capacity 
of the family head, his income may be supplemented 
in three ways : 

1. The wage-earner may engage in a secondary 

occupation. 

2. His wife may take up some gainful occupation. 

3. His children may engage in a gainful occupa- 

tion. 

The wage-earner, himself, may take up some 
secondary occupation and thus supplement his regu- 
lar wage. Outside of regular working hours, or if 
he is engaged in a seasonal trade, then during the 
slack season, he may engage in some incidental, 
transient work. Of the secondary occupation, the 
prevalence is, perhaps, best indicated by a group of 
Massachusetts figures collected during a year when 
trade conditions were abnormally bad. The extent 
of regular and ^' other" or secondary employment, 
for April, 1895 (the month showing the largest num- 
ber of persons employed) follows :^^ 

Males. Females. 

Regular employment 616,388 253,860 

'•'Other" employment 13,133 1,926 

Per cent, of "other" or regular employment 2.1% .7% 

Thus, only two per cent, of the males and less than 
one per cent, of the females reported a secondary 
occupation. While far from conclusive, the figures 

«o Massachusetts Census of Manufacturers^ vol. VII, p. 91, 1895. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 33 

indicate that secondary occupations are not a large 
source of supplementary family income. 

The wife may take up some gainful occupation. 
She may either go out to work in the factory, bring 
home work from the factory, take boarders, or en- 
gage in some productive enterprise, such as store- 
keeping, dressmaking and the like. 

The entrance of women into gainful occupations 
is quite a general phenomenon in the United States. 
Of the 13,810,057 married women, 769,477, or 5.6 
per cent, were engaged in some form of gainful oc- 
cupation in 1900. While this work of the wife for 
wages is most noticeable among the negroes, never- 
theless, among native and foreign white, 3 per cent, 
of the married women are gainfully employed.^ ^ 

In the cities, the system of taking work from the 
factory into the home (the sweating system) is fairly 
prevalent, affording many married women an op- 
portunity of adding to the family income without 
leaving the home. While it is impossible to make 
any definite statement regarding the extent of the 
sweated industries, sweating is sufficiently preva- 
lent to arouse widespread comment.^^ 

The keeping of boarders and lodgers among cer- 
tain groups of the population, furnishes a very con- 

31 Statistics of Women at Work, U. S. Census Bureau, p. 15, Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, Washington, 1907. 

^^ Report of the Industrial Commission, volumes 8, 14, 15, 17, Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, Washington, 1902. Reports of the New 
York Department of Tenement House Inspection and the New York 
Bureau of Labor. Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United 
States, vol. II, chapter 5, Government Printing Office, Washington, 
1911. Reports of the Immigration Commission. 



34 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

siderable addition to family income. The investiga- 
tion made by the United States Bureau of Labor in 
1903 showed that of 25,440 families, 5,367 had 9,120 
boarders, while 684 families had 1,876 lodgers. 
Thus 21.1 per cent, of all of the families had boarders 
and 2.7 per cent, had lodgers.^^ 

Children work rather extensively. The total 
number of child laborers in the United States was 
more than a million and three-qnarters in 1900. 
This did not include the children working as mer- 
chants, namely — the newsboys, match sellers, and 
other children who buy and sell on their own ac- 
count. In recent years, child labor laws have been 
rather generally enacted, which usually prohibited 
the working of children under fourteen years of age, 
thus depriving the family of any income which the 
young child might earn. 

The relative proportions contributed to family in- 
come by the wage-earner, by his wife and his chil- 
dren will be analyzed in a later section. Suffice it 
to say, at this point, that the income of wage-earners' 
families is frequently supplemented in one or more of 
the ways just indicated. In some instances, this sup- 
plementing is voluntary, in other cases compulsory. 
Some Southern mill towns fall in the latter class. 
^^The incomes of cotton mill families are composite; 
that is, they are made up of the wages of several 
workers. The so-called normal family-father, with 
wife and children dependent upon him for support, 

33 Annual Report of the Commission of Labor , p. 260, Govern- 
ment Printing Office, Washington, 1904. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 35 

is not a normal cotton-mill family. Indeed, this 
type of family is rare, because it is almost impossible 
for it to exist. At one mill studied there were only 
five individuals whose daily wage amounted to $1.25 
or more per day. The wages of these individuals 
were $2, $1.50, $1.28, $1.25, and $1.25'. This means 
that in that community it would have been possible 
for one man only to support a wife and three young 
children according to the fair standard of living; 
and this would have been impossible unless he 
worked 300 days in the year. There was only one 
other individual whose earnings were sufficient to 
support a family of this size even in accordance with 
the minimum standard." ^^ 

Nevertheless, the extent to which these supple- 
mental earnings can raise the family income is usu- 
ally definitely limited by the earning capacity of the 
woman, and the size of the house in which the family 
lives. The earning power of both unskilled women 
and children, is not only low but very uniform 
throughout the country, and since the average dwell- 
ing place of the wage-earner is restricted in size, the 
possibility of taking boarders is not considerable. 

The wage-earner's income is thus limited, on the 
one hand by the rigid organization of the modern 
wage system, and on the other hand, by the zero line 
of no earnings. An analysis of his expenditures 
reveals the fact that the exact reverse of the above 
statement holds true, for while his income has a 

34 Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, vol. 16, 
p. 153, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1911. 



36 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

definite npward limit and no lower limit, expendi- 
tures have a definite lower limit and no upward 
limit. 

X. The Minimum of Subsistence. 

Every family must be provided with a minimum 
amount of clothing, food, and shelter, if life is to be 
maintained. Furthermore, the necessity for these 
things is continuous. "Whether the wage-earner is 
employed or unemployed, the bills of the landlord, 
the grocer and the butcher come with appalling regu- 
larity. Whether he is earning or is not earning in- 
come, he must give his family a minimum of sub- 
sistence, setting a limit of expenditure below which 
misery and starvation will sit at the family table. 
There is here no assertion that people are miserable 
and starving. The course of the argument demands, 
however, the recognition of a minimum limit for 
every family beyond which misery and starvation 
are inevitable. 

While the lower limit of expenditure is thus defi- 
nitely set by a minimum of subsistence, its upward 
limit is established by only one factor — the capacity 
of the workingman to run into debt. To be sure, 
over a series of years, it is impossible for a family to 
spend more than its income, but over short periods, 
expenditures may be continued even though income 
is discontinued, because it is customary for trades- 
men in industrial districts to ^^ carry" customers 
over strikers, periods of sickness, and unemployment. 
In financing a workingman 's family, the ordinary ex- 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 37 

penditures (those involved in providing the neces- 
saries of life) are no less insistent in their demands 
than the extraordinary expenditures. Sickness 
brings its bills for medical attendance, medicines 
and choice foods ; births and deaths carry with them 
an inevitable outlay in addition to the ordinary ex- 
penses. Thus, the minimum of expenditure is es- 
tablished by the necessity of existence, while its 
maximum varies with extraordinary expenditures, 
reaching its high point only when it has reached the 
debt limit. 

A very definite contrast may, therefore, be made 
between income and expenditure. The maximum in- 
come is limited by the character of the occupation. 
The minimum of income is zero. In the case of ex- 
penditures, however, the maximum is limited only 
by borrowing capacity, while the minimum is set by 
the outlay necessary to provide the means of sub- 
sistence. 

If the maximum wage which an ordinary American 
workingman can earn is considerably above the sub- 
sistence level, the problem of financing his family is 
a comparatively simple one. If, however, the max- 
imum wage is about equal to the subsistence, then 
a partial or entire cessation of income, or a series 
of extraordinary expenditures would inevitably re- 
sult in poverty and misery. If the former hypoth- 
esis is the correct one — that is, if wages in the 
United States greatly exceed the expenditures neces- 
sary to provide subsistence, then prosperity should 
be widespread. If, however, the latter hypothesis 



38 FINANCING THE WAGE-EAENER^S FAMILY 

is the correct one — that is, if wages are about equal 
to the cost of subsistence, then an investigation of 
living conditions should show hardships and poverty 
among the families of the most poorly paid workers. 

XI. The Effects of Low Standards of Living. 

Fortunately, considerable data has been collected 
during the past decade, in a number of thorough-go- 
ing investigations^^ which point rather directly to 
the conclusion that there is a sharp conflict be- 
tween income and the standard of subsistence, and 

35 The most elaborate of the mvestigations which have been made 
into conditions in the United States are; 

1. The Report of the Federal Industrial Commission — 1900. (Nine- 

teen volumes — excellently indexed) containing a great amount 
of testimony from individuals of every class, together with 
several expert studies of sweating, housing and the like. 

2. The Hearings before the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission — 

1902. The ten thousand typewritten pages contain much 
valuable information about the living conditions of anthra- 
cite coal miners. 

3. The Pittsburgh Survey, made by a stalff of expert investigators in 

1907-8 and published in eight volumes by the Charities Pub- 
lication Committee, New York. 

4. The Federal Investigation into the Conditions of Woman and 

Child Wage-Earners, made during 1907, 1908, and 1909, and 
published during 1911, 1912 and 1913 in nineteen volumes pic- 
tures very graphically, and in great detail the problem as it 
presents itself in those industries employing great numbers of 
women and children. 

5. The Report of the Federal Immigration Commission, covering the 

years 1909-1911, published 1912, presents, in great detail, a 
picture of the working and living conditions in various parts 
of the country. 

6. The Federal Bureau of Labor and the State Bureaus, notably in 

Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jer- 
sey, New York and Wisconsin, publish reports and bulletins 
dealing with every phase of living conditions among the 
working population. 

7. The Survey, a publication issued by a group of social workers in 

New York (105 E. 22nd street) contains weekly statements 
of material bearing on living conditions. 



FINANCING A WORKINGMAN'S FAMILY 39 

that in a very large number of cases, income falls 
below the minimum of subsistence. Eowntree is 
probably correct when he assumes that there are 
several times in the life of the average workingman 
when he drops below the subsistence line, so that he, 
or the members of his family suffer from insufficient 
food, clothing and shelter. The facts at hand indi- 
cate that there are now, in the United States, able- 
bodied, vigorous men, who, in spite of their best 
efforts, are unable to provide adequately for their 
families. The most dependable investigations cov- 
ering congestion, housing, malnutrition, poverty, 
vice, crime, and related topics show beyond the pos- 
sibility of cavil that in some of the wealthiest and 
most prosperous centers of the United States there 
is an appalling amount of poverty and misery. 

XII. Underfeeding. 

By way of illustration, for the limitations of this 
chapter will not permit of an exhaustive discussion, 
consider the latest data relating to the under-feed- 
ing of school children. The absence of an adequate 
food supply among children is, perhaps, the clearest 
indication of the presence of poverty, hence the 
presence of underfed children would be an indica- 
tion of the existence of a disproportion between in- 
come and a subsistence wage. 

One thorough investigation of hungry children, in- 
cluding only the children between six and sixteen 
years, was made by the Chicago Board of Education. 
Here are some extracts from the official report. 



40 FINANCING THE WAGE-EAENER'S FAMILY 

^^Five thousand cMldren who attend the schools are 
habitually hungry/^ while ten thousand other chil- 
dren ^^do not have nourishing food." The report 
further states that ^^many children lack shoes and 
clothing. Many have no beds to sleep in. They 
cuddle together on hard floors. The majority of the 
indigent children live in damp, unclean or over- 
crowded homes that lack proper ventilation and 
sanitation. Here, in the damp, ill-smelling base- 
ments, there is only one thing regarded as cheaper 
than rent, and that is the life of the child. We find 
that a large number of children have only bread, 
saturated in water, for breakfast day after day; 
that the noon meal is bread or bananas, and an oc- 
casional luxury of soup made from pork bones; 
that children often frequent South Water street, 
begging for dead fowl in the crates, or decayed fruit; 
that others have been found searching for food in 
alley garbage boxes.'' 

Chicago is not alone. Similar investigations in 
other cities reveal the same conditions of underfeed- 
ing. Louise Stevens Bryant, after an exhaustive 
study on the subject, summarizes the facts regard- 
ing underfeeding in the United States, by saying: 

^^As a general conclusion from these investiga- 
tions, it seems fair to place the probable number of 
seriously underfed school children in New York and 
other American cities at 10 per cent, of the school 
population.'' ^^ 

30 Louise Stevens Bryant, School Feeding, p. 204, J. B. Lippin- 
COtt Company, Philadelphia, 1913. 



FINANCING A WOKKINGMAN'S FAMILY 41 

XIII. The Working man's Dilemma. 

A host of similar data on housing, living condi- 
tions, and other related problems bear out the infer- 
ence deducible from the facts regarding the under- 
feeding of children, namely, that there is a 
discrepancy between present day incomes and a sub- 
sistence standard of living. Clearly, then, a serious 
maladjustment exists between income and subsist- 
ence. Before determining the character of the re- 
adjustment necessary to establish normal relations 
between income and expenditure, it is necessary to 
discover the causes of the present maladjustment. 
The extreme possibilities are two : 

1. Either the workingman and his family are vi- 

cious, lazy, indifferent, and wasteful — in 
which case his failure to maintain his family 
above the poverty line is due to his own in- 
efficiency. 

2. Or else the relation between possible income 

and necessary expenditure is such that no 
matter how efficiently and earnestly he may 
strive, he will be unable to maintain a decent 
standard of living. 

If the former hypothesis be the correct one, the 
remedy for the present situation lies in increasing 
the efficiency of consumption through some method 
of education. If, however, the latter hypothesis be 
correct, no amount of efficiency in consumption, of 
earnestness, of sobriety, will avail a certain group of 



42 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

workers against the clutclies of poverty and misery. 
The present maladjustment may, of course, be the 
product of both factors, nevertheless, the issue will 
be clearly drawn if it can be shown that incomes are 
insufficient to meet necessary expenditures. 

Considerable work has already been done in an 
effort to analyze the former hypothesis. Principles 
of Reliefs by Edward T. Devine (Macmillan, New 
York, 1903) ; Misery and Its Causes^ by Edward T. 
Devine (Macmillan, New York, 1909) ; Poverty 
by Eowntree (Macmillan, London, 1901) ; Poverty, 
by Hunter (Macmillan, New York, 1904) ; and 
American Charities, by Warner (Crowell, New York, 
1894) have discussed the personal factors — vic(5, 
shiftlessness and efficiency — which result in poverty 
and misery. Comparatively little effort has been 
made, however, to analyze the latter hypothesis and 
to determine the existing relation between a work- 
ingman's income and expenditure on the one hand, 
and a decent standard of living on the other. In fact, 
until very lately, the data has not been available, 
from which a study along this line could be made. 
Several recent publications, dealing with wages, 
prices and living standards furnish, however, a 
group of facts for a study which shall determine 
whether, in view of the conditions now prevailing, 
the wages paid to American workingmen are suffi- 
cient to enable them to maintain a standard of living. 
The study, based on this data, will aim to answer 
four questions : 



FINANCING A WOEKINGMAN'S FAMILY 43 

1. What amount of economic goods is necessary 

to maintain a standard of living in the United 
States? 

2. How much will these goods cost? 

3. Are the wages of adnlt males snfiScient to pur- 

chase such a sum of goods? 

4. Does the income of the entire family admit 

of their purchase? 



CHAPTER II 

The Standard of Living 

I. The Meaning of ^'Standard of Living J ^ 

What amount of economic goods is necessary to 
maintain a standard of living in the United States? 
An adequate answer to that question must be impos- 
sible without a definite idea of the meaning of 
^^ standard of living." The term is most general, 
and any limitations upon it must of necessity be 
arbitrary; yet some definition of the term forms a 
necessary basis for discussion. ^' A standard of liv- 
ing," writes the New York Committee on Standards, 
^4s a measurement of life expressed in a daily rou- 
tine which is determined by income and the condi- 
tions under which it is earned, economic and social 
environment and the capacity of distributing the in- 
come."^ More briefly the standard of living is 
the measure of livelihood for any given family unit, 
in terms of income and expenditure. 

II. Standard of Living Estimates. 

There are four distinct methods of approaching 
the standard of living problem. In the seventeenth 

1 R. C. Chapin, The Standard of Living in 'New York City, pp. 255- 
256, Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1909. 

44 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 45 

and eighteenth centuries, a number of students 
who were interested in the conditions of working 
people, attempted to reach some scientific decision 
regarding them, by estimating on the one hand the 
amount of wages which working people got, and on 
the other hand, the amount of expenditures which 
they made for various purposes. In these estimates 
nothing was included except food, clothing and mis- 
cellaneous items. A similar method was adopted by 
the New York Committee on Standards of Living, 
as a preliminary to their detailed investigation. 
Sixteen social workers were asked to name the 
amount upon which a family could maintain a decent 
standard of living. The replies^ show a variation 
from $768 to $1,449 for a family consisting of man, 
wife and three children. Although the Committee 
explains that the experts did not all estimate on the 
same basis, there is a very obvious divergence of 
opinion among them. A reliance on estimates is 
clearly unscientific, hence this method of computing 
standards was early supplanted by scientific analyses 
of the actual income and expenditures in working- 
men's families. This is the second method of study- 
ing the problem. 

in. The Analysis of Individual Family Budgets. 

The second method of study, developed by Eden 
and LePlay, and applied in a number of modern in- 
vestigations, consists in an analysis of the budgets 

2 Ibid., p. 259. 



^ 



46 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

of individual families. A careful schedule of ques- 
tions is prepared, dealing with all of the facts which' 
it is necessary to secure, and answers to these ques- 
tions are then obtained by personal visits to the 
families which are to be investigated. As the sched- 
ules are sometimes very long — the budget of one of 
LePlay's workingmen occupies twenty-seven printed 
pages, while the schedule of questions on which the 
Chapin study was based occupied fifteen printed 
pages — the greatest skill is necessary for their prep- 
aration. Such studies were made by Dr. D. Ei. 
Foreman,^ by Mrs. Louisa B. Moore,^ by E. G. Herz- 
feld,^ and by the investigators in the Woman and 
Child Wage-Earners report.^ 

In these studies, each family budget is treated 
and analyzed as an individual unit. Under Eden 
and LePlay, the method ended with this individual 
treatment. In the hands of later writers, notably 
the authors of the Woman and Child Wage-Earners 
study, the method has been carried much farther. 
Chapin, in his study, pays little attention to the in- 
dividual budget. 

The treatment of family budgets as individual 
units has this great advantage over the first method 
— that the data collected is exact, reliable and specif- 
ically connected with the problems of one family. 
On the other hand, its main defects are that the con- 

3 United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 64, May, 1906. 

4 Wage-Earners Budgets, Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1907. 

5 Neio York, The J. Kempster Printing Co., 1907. 

6 Woman and Child Wage-Earnei^Sy vol. 16, Government Printing 
Office, Washington, 1911. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 47 

ditions applicable to one family are never entirely 
similar to those applicable in another family, and 
hence, the results of the study cannot be made the 
basis for a statistical statement of the standard of 
living problem. Any conclusion which is reached 
holds for the family under consideration, and for 
that family only. 

IV. The Averaging of Income and Expenditure. 

In order to overcome this difficulty, a third method 
has been resorted to, namely, that of averaging the 
receipts and expenditures of a number of families. 
While this method was first inaugurated at the 
Brussels Statistical Conference in 1853, and per- 
fected by Ernest Engel in his later studies, it has 
never been more completely worked out than by the 
United States Bureau of Labor in its annual report 
for 1903. That report contains an analysis of the 
budgets of 25,440 workingmen's families; again, in 
greater detail, the analysis of receipts and expendi- 
tures in 2,567 ^^ selected" families from the larger 
group; and, finally, of the income and expenditures 
in 11,156 ^' normal'^ families — families having ^'a 
husband at work ; a wife ; not more than five children, 
and none over fourteen years of age; and no de- 
pendent, boarder, lodger, or servant.'' Throughout 
this report, no statement is made of the individual 
family budget, and the introduction to the study is so 
incomplete as to leave the reader in considerable 
doubt as to the scientific accuracy of the methods 
pursued. What kind of a schedule was used? The 



m FINANCING THE :wrAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

report states (p, 15-16) that ^^The investigation was 
limited to families of wage-workers and of persons 
on salaries not exceeding $1,200 per year." All 
schedules ^^ cover a period of one year." The work 
was done ^^by experienced special agents" of the 
Bureau, and these agents by familiarizing themselves 
with each locality were enabled ^^to verify, to a cer- 
tain extent, the statements" of the housewives. ^'Of 
necessity, much of the information was given from 
memory, although some families were found that 
kept correct book accounts." 

Thus the work was not done with the same accu- 
racy that has characterized several of the later 
studies. Nevertheless, it represents, perhaps, the 
best extensive collection of data in this form. 
Families were investigated in thirty-three States, 
*^ apportioned according to the number of persons 
employed in the manufacturing industries of the 
State." (P. 15.) 

The entire group of families, and the ^^ selected" 
families, do not present xiearly so interesting a 
problem as the ^^ normal" families, because the lat- 
ter, according to their classification, are very similar 
to the families accepted as *^ normal," in later 
studies. In these 11,156 ^^ normal" families, the in- 
come and the expenditures for the various items in 
the budget were : '^ 

Total average income $650.98 * 

Total average expenditure $617.80 

7 Annual Report, U. S. Bureau of Labor, p. 569, 1903, Government 
Printing Office, Washington, 1904. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 49 

Percentage of this expenditure made for — 

Food '. 43.13% 

Rent 18.12% 

Clothing • 12.95% 

Fuel 4.57% 

Lighting 1.12% 

Sundries 20.11% 

These percentages of expenditure are almost ex- 
actly the same as those derived in other studies, ex- 
cept that the ^^ sundries'' item is far too large. If 
an analysis could be made of ^ lighting'' to 1.12 per 
cent., there are surely some items in '^sundries/' 
such for example as ^^ health," ^'insurance," ^^house- 
hold goods" and the like, which would analyze to a 
like amount. 

These general statements of average incomes and 
expenditures are misleading, unless the reader un- 
derstands that they are merely group pictures, rep- 
resenting in the large, a composite statement of con- 
ditions in all of the families studied. In order to 
secure greater accuracy, two methods of further 
analysis are employed — first the expenditures may 
be analyzed by the size of the family, and second by 
the size of the income. Both methods are followed 
in the 1903 Bureau of Labor Eeport, and the second 
is followed in the Chapin study. 

The income and expenditures in the ^ ^normal" 
families of the Bureau of Labor Eeport arranged by 
the size of the family are as follows : ^ 

8 Ibid., p. 569. 



50 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Per cent, of total expenditures made for various purposes. 





(D 


if 


o 


^• 


% 


1 











2,124' 


$632.61 


40.33 


20.23 


12.43 


4.76 


1.14 


21.11 


100.00 


1 


2,579 


638.29 


41.74 


18.48 


12.64 


4.67 


1.14 


21.33 


100.00 


2 


2,700 


649.04 


43.21 


17.81 


13.03 


4.59 


1.13 


20.23 


100.00 


3 


1,973 


665.90 


44.56 


17.44 


13.17 


4.45 


1.10 


19.28 


100.00 


4 


1,248 


683.16 


45.69 


16.76 


13.36 


4.23 


1.08 


18.88 


100.00 


5 


532 


664.82 


47.24 


16.54 


13.85 


4.52 


1.04 


16.81 


100.00 



11,156 $650.98 43.13 18.12 12.95 4.57 1.12 20.11 100.00 

The number of families in the different groups is 
remarkably uniform for the first four groups. In 
the fifth group there is a considerable decrease, how- 
ever, and the sixth group (five children) is compara- 
tively small. The family incomes vary but slightly 
throughout, indicating that among these families 
no apparent co-relation exists between family size 
and size of income. 

In the expenditures, however, there is considerable 
variation. The families with children are spending 
one-sixth more for food, and one-fifth less for rent 
than the families without children. While the ex- 
penditures for fuel and light remain constant, the 
^^ sundries" item decreases by nearly one-fourth. 
The increase in family size, making more mouths to 
feed, forces the family into smaller quarters, and 
cuts heavily into expenditures for those things not 
absolutely necessary to existence. 

By inference, the larger the family, the larger the 
percentage of expenditure for food and the smaller 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 



51 



the percentage of expenditure for rent. Differently- 
stated, increasing family size is accompanied by in- 
creasing food and decreasing rent expenditures. 

Although the report gives no statement as to the 
method of picking the families considered, it is of 
great interest to note that the average incomes of 
these 11,156 families vary from $632 to $683^ — a vari- 
ation of less than ten per cent, and that the largest 
average income is not enjoyed by the largest 
families. 

The classification of expenditure in these 11,156 
families by income is essentially the same as that 
appearing in Chapin's New York Stndy.^ This lat- 
ter presents the expenditures by percentages for 
various items. 

Percentage of total incomes expended for various items, hy income 
group. — N-^.w York, 1907-8. 



i 

h-l 


o 

S' 




^6 


4^ 


o 

5 




r, 

o 


0) 






; 400- 499 


8 




40.8 


26.8 


13.0 


5.6 


2.6 


1.2 


3.1 


6.9 


500- 599 


17 




44.4 


25.9 


12.4 


5.9 


1.8 


1.3 


1.9 


6.4 


600- 699 


72 




44.6 


23.6 


12.9 


5.8 


1.7 


2.0 


2.1 


7.3 


700- 799 


79 




45.6 


21.9 


13.4 


5.0 


1.5 


2.5 


1.9 


8.2 


800- 899 


73 




44.3 


20.7 


14.0 


5.0 


2.0 


2.2 


2.7 


9.1 


900- 999 


63 




44.7 


19.0 


14.6 


5.1 


1.5 


2.6 


2.6 


9.9 


1000-1099 


31 




44.7 


18.1 


15.5 


4.5 


1.8 


2.5 


1.5 


11.4 


1100-1199 


18 




45.6 


16.2 


14.9 


3.8 


1.9 


2.5 


3.6 


11.5 


1200-1299 


8 




45.0 


19.8 


15.2 


3.8 


2.2 


2.2 


1.3 


10.5 


1300-1399 


8 




43.6 


16.8 


13.7 


3.6 


1.1 


4.9 


1.1 


15.2 


1500-1599 


6 




36.8 


16.3 


16.8 


4.1 


1.2 


2.3 


7.4 


15.1 



The percentage of expenditure for food is prac- 
tically stationary between $500 and $1,400 ; for rent, 

8 Chapin, op. cit. 



52 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

the expenditure decreases steadily as income in- 
creases up to $1,000, after which it remains practi- 
cally stable; the expenditure for clothing increases 
slightly, though it is fairly stable; the expenditure 
for fuel and light decreases above $1,100, while the 
percentages expended for carfare, insurance and 
health vary with the family rather than with the in- 
come. The remaining item, ' ' sundries, ' ' is of course 
much larger in the higher income groups. 

The contrast between the expenditures of the low 
income families where the struggle for existence is 
sharp, and of the high income families where the 
struggle is much less keen, is most interesting. 
While both groups of families spend the same pro- 
portion of income for food, the expenditure for rent 
is much higher in the lower income family ; and that 
for clothing is much higher in the higher income 
family. The rent expenditure is necessary. The 
clothing expenditure is not. 

To the statistician these analyses of income and 
expenditure by family size, by income group, by 
nationality, and by locality present alluring possi- 
bilities, since such statistics are the legitimate ob- 
ject of a many-sided statistical analysis; yet they 
fail absolutely to make any connection with liveli- 
hood. After learning that the foreign families in 
Massachusetts, having more than two and less than 
five children, spent, on the average, ^668 annually, 
37 per cent, of which went for food, the reader is a 
little puzzled to know how such a statement will as- 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 53 

sist Mm in determining whether the said foreign- 
born escaped the acutest pangs of hunger. 

In short, this third method of considering the 
standard of living problem presents, as accurately 
as is statistically possible, the condition of a gronp 
of families, giving the average of income and of 
expenditure. If this method is combined with the 
second, and representative individual family budgets 
are given, a very good picture of existing conditions 
is secured. "While this method of approaching the 
standard of living problem affords some excellent 
data regarding actual living conditions, it does not 
yet give a contrast between the amount of goods 
which an income will buy, and the amount of goods 
needed to maintain a standard of living in any given 
case. For a statement of this contrast, we must 
proceed to another method of studying living stand- 
ards. No one of these first three methods of study- 
ing the standard of living, and no combination of 
them will answer the root question regarding the 
amount of income necessary to maintain the effi- 
ciency of workingmen and their families. 

There is only one way in which a conclusion can 
be reached on this important point — the investigator 
must determine what amount of economic goods is 
necessary to the maintenance — first of a standard of 
subsistence which will permit the family to maintain 
its existence as a social unit, and second, of a stand- 
ard which will maintain the efficiency of the members 
of the family group under consideration. ^^Only 



54 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

those estimates of the cost of a normal standard of 
living are sound which are based on a given social 
unit, and on the cost of the essential elements of 
that standard in a given commnnity, and at a given 
time. Can these costs be determined in such a way 
as to make society believe they are well founded? 
To this question, I answer: ^^Yes, I believe they 
can.'^^^ The studies which have been completed 
since Mr. Tucker made this statement, amply con- 
firm his judgment — proving beyond cavil that it is 
possible to determine the amount and the cost of a 
supply of goods which will insure subsistence and 
eflBciency. 

V. ^^ Goods ^' as a Basis for Study. 

The inquirer may, therefore, attack the standard 
of living problem at an angle different from any so 
far outlined, and instead of starting with the earn- 
ings and expenditures of workingmen's families, 
premise the discussion on an answer to the question 
— ^^What amount of economic goods will a given 
unit — a man or family — need to maintain a stand- 
ard of living?" Emphasis is thus placed on the 
object — a standard of living, rather than on the 
means — income and expenditure. This method 
premises a theoretical standard, and then compares 
this standard with the expenditures being made, in 
any given case, in order to determine whether these 

10 Frank Tucker, Report of the Committee on Standard of Living. 
R. C. Chapin, The Standard of Living in New York City, p. 257, 
Charities Publication Committee, 1909. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 55 

expenditures will provide sufficient economic goods 
to furnish a standard, either of bare subsistence, or 
of efficiency. 

Both ^^subsistence" and ^^ efficiency" necessarily 
enter into any discussion of standards. Formerly 
it was taken for granted that if a family was pro- 
vided with a subsistence, everything necessary had 
been done. During recent years, however, par- 
ticularly in Germany, great emphasis has been laid 
on the maintenance of efficiency as well as of sub- 
sistence. Starting as an industrial concept, aimed 
at the preservation of the workers for industrial or 
for military purposes, the efficiency idea has spread 
into social fields, until there is a general recognition 
of the desirability of maintaining an efficiency stand- 
ard in every phase of life. 

An adequate approach to the study of living 
standards must, therefore, be based on a measure of 
the amount of goods which will maintain the sub- 
sistence or the efficiency of a given group; and it 
must proceed along lines which will show how many 
of the incomes in the community will permit the 
maintenance of such a standard. 

VI. The Elements in a Standard of Living. 

There are certain elements which necessarily en- 
ter into a standard of living. These axe differently 
classed by different writers. Shadwell cites the fol- 
lowing elaborate schedule which he has adopted 
from the Germans :^^ 

11 Arthur Shadwell, Industrial Efficiency, pp. 224-225, Long- 
mans, Green, & Co., New York, 1906. 



56 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

1. Necessaries of life : 

a Eent, fuel, light. 

h Clothing. 

c Food; at home and in the eating-house. 

d Locomotion (train, omnibus, etc.). 

e Tools. 

2. Compulsory disbursements : 

a Contribution to sick, insurance, etc. 

h Taxes. 

c School-pence and books. 

3. Bodily and mental recreation: 

a Baths. 

h Public-house. 

c Spirits (presumably at home). 

d Tobacco. 

e Newspapers and books. 

. / Amusements. 

4. Voluntary subscriptions: 

a Insurance. 

h Clubs and trade unions. 

5. Other regular expenses. 

6. Extraordinary expenses: 

a Doctor, medicine, sickness. 

h Furniture, breakages. 

c Debt, interest and repayment. 

In the more detailed and technical study of stand- 
ards of living, such an extensive classification may 
be desirable, but for the purposes of ordinary dis- 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 57 

cussion it is unnecessary. Indeed, the brief classi- 
fication used by Cbapin will prove adequate in most 
respects. He classifies tbe expenditures as those 
for — ' 

1. Food. 

2. Housing. 

3. Clothing. 

4. Fuel and light, 

5. Carfare. 

6. Health. 

7. Insurance. 

8. Sundry minor items. 

Having accepted the classification employed by 
Dr. Chapin as a workable one, it becomes necessary 
to inquire what amount of each of the items set 
down in his list is necessary for the maintenance of 
a standard of living. 

VII. The Requirements for Specific Items in a 
Standard of Living. 

The only adequate method of determining what 
amount of goods is necessary for the maintenance of 
existence or of efficiency, is based on an analysis of 
each item in the classification. The measurement 
of the amount of food necessary to maintain a stand- 
ard of living is by far the easiest part of the prob- 
lem. Food requirements are usually measured 
in calories of energy, and in order to secure 
uniformity, they are stated in terms of the require- 
ments of an adult man. The United States Depart- 



58 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

ment of Agriculture, which has made some valuable 
experiments on food values, states that a man in the 
full vigor of life, doing moderate muscular work, 
requires each day a quantity of food containing, as 
it is purchased, 3,800 calories of energy. By the 
time this food is eaten, it will contain but 3,500 
calories, from which quantity the digestive system 
extracts 3,200 calories of energy.^^ After an analy- 
sis of the available data, Eowntree concludes that 
Atwater's estimate of 3,500 calories for a man doing 
^ ^moderate muscular work,'' must be interpreted in 
terms of very moderate work if it is to be ade- 
quate.^^ Generally, however, it is conceded that 
from 3,200 to 3,900 calories of energy, depending 
upon the intensity and character of the work done, 
must be supplied to the body each day. 

The actual amounts of food consumed vary con- 
siderably from this standard. Atwater has com- 
piled an extensive table, in which he sets down the 
results of ^^ comparing the dietaries of persons with 
different occupations and incomes, and performing 
different amounts of muscular work." The energy 
supplied by the rowing clubs in New England, for 
instance, is 3,955 calories ; by football teams in Con- 
necticut and California, 6,590 calories ; by farmers ' 
families in Eastern United States, 3,415 calories; 
by professional men, 3,200 calories ; by poor families 
in New York City, 2,845 calories, and by negro 

12 Tear Booh of tJie TJ, S. Dept. of Agriculture, p. 371. Article by 
C. F. Langworthy, 1907. 

13 B. L. RowNTREE, Poverty, pp. 91-97, Macmillan & Co. Ltd., Lon- 
don, 1901. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 59 

families in Alabama and Virginia, 3,395 calories.^* 
Since the dietaries of different groups differ as rad- 
ically in their content as do the various foods in 
their energy yielding power, the computation of the 
dietary value of any group is a purely individual 
affair. 

In order to analyze, on a scientifically comparable 
basis, the diet of a number of families, Atwater has 
prepared a system of comparing the dietary re- 
quirements of women and children with those of an 
adult man, which purports to show the relative 
amount of food consumed by each.^^ 

An adult woman requires... .8 as much as an adult man. 

A boy of 15 to 16 9 as much as an adult man. 

A boy of 13 to 14 8 as much as an adult man. 

A boy of 12 7 as much as an adult man. 

A boy of 10 to 11 6 as much as an adult man. 

A girl of 15 to 16 8 as much as an adult man. 

A girl of 13 to 14 7 as much as an adult man. 

A girl of 10 to 12 6 as much as an adult man. 

A child from 6 to 9 5 as much as an adult man. 

A child from 2 to 5 4 as much as an adult man. 

A child under 2 3 as much as an adult man. 

These estimates of Atwater may be accepted, 
since they correspond rather closely to similar ta- 
bles prepared by other experts. Their value lies in 
the fact that by means of them, the food consumption 
of families may always be reduced to a common de- 
nomination — the requirements of a man. 

The method of applying this formula is stated 
very well by Chapin. Suppose, he says, that a fam- 
ily consists of father, mother, a girl of four years, 

14 W. 0. Atwateb, Principles of Nutrition, pp. 34-35, Government 
Printing Office, Washington, 1910. 

15 Ibid., pp. 34-35. 



60 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

a boy of three and a baby under two. The father 
bnys Innch six days in a week. The calcnlation 
therefore runs : ^^ 

1 man 15 meals per week 15.0 

1 woman 21 meals, equivalent for man to 21 x 0.8 meals per week . . 16.8 
1 boy 21 meals, equivalent for man to 21 x 0.4 meals per week . . 6.4 

1 girl 21 meals, equivalent for man to 21 x 0.4 meals per week . . 6.4 
1 child 21 meals, equivalent for man to 21 x 0.3 meals per week . . 6.3 



Total number of meals, on basis of consumption of adult man . . 54.9 

The family under consideration is, therefore, con- 
suming weekly the equivalent of 54.9 meals for one 
adult man. Any other family, or any number of 
families may, in this manner, have their dietaries 
reduced to a common denomination for the purpose 
of comparison. 

The determination of the amounts of housing, 
clothing, fuel and light necessary to the maintenance 
of a standard, is a much more difficult problem than 
that involved in the discussion of food, because there 
is no way of stating what amount of these items is 
requisite for the running of the body on an efficiency 
basis. The best that can be said is that (1) sanita- 
tion, (2) privacy, (3) decency and (4) necessity are 
the governing factors to be determined in each local- 
ity. There is certainly a minimum amount of each 
of these goods necessary in the maintenance of a 
standard. What that amount may be, it is difficult 
to say generally, though it may be readily deter- 
minable in each specific case. Similarly, expendi- 
tures for carfare, health, insurance and sundry 

leCHAPiN, op. cit., pp. 126-127. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 61 

items must be determined by the locality. That 
some expenditure should be made for these items is 
obvious ; its amount must be left to a determination 
in each individual case. 

VIIL The Chapin and the Federal Studies. 

From the discussion in Section VII, it must be 
apparent that the available data indicating the 
amount of economic goods necessary to the mainte- 
nance of efficiency is very meager. Indeed, there 
are but two modern American studies which ap- 
proach the problem from the fourth viewpoint (the 
amount of goods necessary) and both of these 
studies are unfortunately very limited in scope. 

The study published by Eobert C. Chapin was 
made in New York City, during 1907-8. The study 
published by the United States Bureau of Labor 
was made in a number of Massachusetts, North 
Carolina and Georgia mill towns in 1908-9. Both 
studies are very detailed, and both are of great 
scientific value, though one deals with city and the 
other with town conditions. 

The Chapin study of standards of living was made 
on a schedule very similar to that adopted by the 
Woman and Child Wage-Earners investigators. 
In the case of the Chapin study, 318 families in New 
York City with incomes ranging between $600 and 
$1,100 form the basis of the study, while 73 addi- 
tional families having incomes below $600 and above 
$1,100 are referred to throughout the work, making 
the total number of New York families included 



62 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

391.^^ The Woman and Child Wage-Earners study, 
on the other hand, covers a much smaller number of 
cases — 21 families in Georgia and North Carolina 
and 14 families in Fall Eiver. Nevertheless, the 
latter study is of the very greatest value because it 
approaches the standard of living problem directly 
from a standpoint of goods, asking first what 
amount of the various items is necessary to the 
maintenance of standards ; second, the cost of these 
items in a number of individual families ; and third, 
their cost in a group of families. 

The Woman and Child Wage-Earners study dif- 
ferentiates, as the Chapin study does not, a ^^ mini- 
mum'^ standard of living from a ^^fair'^ or 
^^ normal' ' standard of living. The minimum stand- 
ard of the Woman and Child Wage-Earners report 
excludes ^^ everything except the bare necessaries of 
life" (p. 133) ; and includes only expenses for food, 
rent, clothing, fuel, light and sundries. The fair 
standard, in contrast with this minimum standard, 
provides ^^not only for physical efficiency, but al- 
lows for the development and satisfaction of human 
attributes. '^ ^^The minimum standard is a stand- 
ard of living so low that one would expect few 
families to live on it. It will be conceded that a 
standard of living on which people are to live must 
include many things that are not allowed by the 
minimum standard.'^ (P. 142.) Thus it is appar- 
ent that the minimum standard, here contemplated, 
is a standard of the barest necessaries, while a fair 

17 Chapin, op. cit., pp. 38-39. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 63 

standard corresponds very nearly to tlie efficiency 
standard of the Chapin stndy. 

Althongh there are instances in which both studies 
— neglecting the statistical warnings regarding the 
percentage of error — rednce a few cases to percent- 
ages and tenths, nevertheless, the Chapin study, as 
an able pioneer, and the Woman and Child stndy, 
as a worthy follower, lay the foundation for a scien- 
tific discussion of the standard of living problem 
as it appears — first in the minimum or existence 
standard, and second in the fair or efficiency stand- 
ard. 

IX. The Minimum Standard of Living. 

In order to present the matter accurately, it will, 
therefore, be necessary to analyze first the elements 
of a minimum standard of living, and second the ele- 
ments comprising a fair or efficiency standard of 
living. Fortunately, the largest item involved in 
the standard of living — food — ^is definitely measur- 
able. The method of approach to the food item 
adopted in the Woman and Child Wage-Earners 
study is, perhaps, as sound as any that could be 
devised. ^^In order to furnish a basis of compari- 
son for the family's study in this report, it seemed 
desirable to ascertain the cost of some dietary in 
actual use, which offers the proper amount of 
protein and energy. The dietary of the Federal 
prison, Atlanta, G-eorgia, for the week beginning 
November 29, 1908, was selected for this purpose.'' 
(P. 134.) The dietary, as adopted by the Federal 



64 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

prison, ^^does not actually meet the standard re- 
quirements being a trifle lower in protein, but bigli 
in energy.'^ The prison is located in the South, 
however, where the study of living standards was 
being conducted, and its dietary represented the 
results of a scientific attempt to secure an adequate 
minimum diet. This prison diet provided 3.186 
ounces of protein per man, per day, and a total fuel 
value of 3,773.09 calories of food value per day. 
*^ Based on the equivalents for food digested, the 
standard requirements are 95 grams of protein and 
3,200 calories, while the above dietary study shows 
90.51 grams of protein available and 3,773.9 
calories.'' (P. 135.) In order to present a more 
accurate picture of the meaning of this diet, the 
following menu of the Federal prison for the week 
of November 29th to December 5, 1908, was pre- 
pared (p. 135-6). 

Sunday. 
Breakfast : Oatmeal, milk, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Beef, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, bread, butter, coffee. 

Supper: Bread, butter, coffee. 

Monday. 

Breahfast : Wieners, grits, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Pork and beans, raw onions, bread, water. 

Supper: Sweet potatoes, bread, butter, coffee. 

Tuesday. 
Breakfast : Potatoes, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Beef, collards, bread, water. 

Supper: Prunes, bread, butter, coffee. 

Wednesday. 
Breakfast: Hash, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Soup, sweet potatoes, bread, water. 

Supper: Pie, bread, butter, tea. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 65 

Thuesday. 

Breakfast: Grits, bread, butter, coffee. 

Dinner: Fresh pork, sweet potatoes, collards, bread, water. 

Supper: Crackling bread, sirup, coffee. 

Friday. 
Breakfast: Beef, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Fish, sweet potatoes, bread, water. 

Supper: Sauce, bread, butter, coffee. 

Satueday. 

Breakfast: Liver, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Stew, bread, water. 

Supper: Graham cookies, coffee. 

A study of this menu will show that while it 
makes no allowances for the luxuries of life, it does 
provide a fair variety, and, chemically analyzed, it 
is sufficient in amount to furnish the requisite food 
values. Hence, the menu is adopted as being ade- 
quate, and at the same time as simple as possible. 

In the matter of housing, four rooms is regarded 
as the minimum amount necessary for a family of 
five. No definite statement of the minimum neces- 
sary housing space was attempted however. (Pp* 
139-140.) 

The item of clothing is susceptible of more defi- 
nite analysis. ''The minimum standard for cloth- 
ing for cotton mill families includes only that 
quality and quantity that is compatible with phys- 
ical efficiency and common decency; that is, enough 
clothing to keep them warm in winter, to allow 
enough changes to keep them clean, and to prevent 
their being in rags." ^^ 

Each member of the family is, therefore, placed 

18 Woman and Child W age-Earners ^ op. cit., vol. 16, p. 137. 



66 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

on the barest minimum. Two pairs of shoes are 
allowed for boys between ten and thirteen, and 
three pairs for boys between six and nine, and four- 
teen and sixteen, because the boys under thirteen 
go bare foot about six months of the year. In the 
remaining six months, however, boys from six to 
nine wear their shoes out much more quickly than 
the boys from ten to thirteen. ^'The fathers and 
the boys ten years old and over have each been 
allowed a cheap suit of clothes. This is necessary, 
for they must have a coat for protection. This 
suit, with two pairs of trousers, must be worn 365 
days in the year. The lint, dust, and oil of the 
cotton mill is particularly hard on clothing. ' ' ^^ 
^'Meager though the amounts allowed the different 
groups may seem, they do satisfy the minimum re- 
quirements, for, with a few minor exceptions, they 
represent the clothing actually worn by some indi- 
vidual whose health had apparently not been im- 
paired by being underclad. If a girl, who was 
otherwise dressed as cheaply as possible, had in- 
dulged in some little extravagance like a Sunday 
hat, this was eliminated. Furthermore, if in some 
family the clothing had been made by a dressmaker, 
the dressmaker's charge was deducted, for the min- 
imum standard requires that all clothing of the 
women and children shall be made at home.^'^^ 
After making the deductions noted, the quantity of 
clothing, for a year, allowed to different members 
of the family was as follows : ^^ 

19 Ibid., p. 138. 20 Idem. 21 ibid., pp. 138-39. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 



67 



Quantity and cost of clothing for a year, according to seco and age— 
Minimum standard. 



Father: 

1 suit $ 8.00 

2 trousers 2.00 

5 colored shirts 2.50 

2 suits winter underwear. 2.00 

2 pairs shoes 3.00 

1 hat 50 

1 suspenders 25 

Socks 50 



Total $18.75 

Sons, 11 years and over: 

suit $ 8.00 

trousers 2.00 

colored shirts 2.50 

suits winter underwear. 2.00 

pairs shoes 6.00 

hat ^.. .50 

suspenders 25 



Socks 



1.00 



Total ...$22.25 



fifons, H, 15 and 16 years: 

1 suit $ 4.00 

4 colored shirts 2.00 

1 overalls 50 

2 suits winter underwear. 1.80 

3 pairs shoes 4.50 

2 caps 50 

1 suspenders 25 

Stockings 1.50 

Total $15.00 

SonSy 10, 11, 12 and 13 years:' 
1 suit $ 4.00 

3 colored shirts 1.00 

1 overalls 25 

2 suits winter underwear. 1.00 

2 pairs shoes 3.00 

2 caps 50 

Stockings 60 



Sons, 6, 1, 8 and 9 years: 

4 trousers $ 1-00 

6 waists 1.50 

2 undershirts 50 

3 pairs shoes 4.50 

2 caps 50 

Stockings 2.00 



Total $10.00 

8ons, 3, 4 and 5 years : 

4 trousers $1.00 

4 waists 60 

Underv/ear 40 

1 cap 25 

3 pairs shoes 3.00 

Stockings 60 



Total 



$5.85 



Mother: 
shawl $1.00 

calico waists 72 

duck skirts 1.80 

drawers 28 

gingham petticoats .... 1.00 

winter undershirts 50 

fascinator 25 

pairs shoes 3.00 



Stockings 70 

Total $9.25 

Daughters, 11 years and over: 

1 shawl $ 1.00 

4 calico dresses 2.80 

2 flannelette dresses 2.50 

2 gingham petticoats .... 1.00 
2 flannelette petticoats .... 1.20 

2 drawers 25 

2 winter undershirts 50 

2 gingham aprons 50 

2 hats 2.00 

Stockings 2.00 

Shoes 7.50 



Total $10.35 



Total $21.25 



68 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 



Daughters, I4, 15 and 16 years: 

1 wrap $1.00 

2 gingham waists 65 

1 cotton skirt 80 

1 flannelette dress 1.00 

2 calico dresses 1.22 

2 gingham aprons 50 

2 cotton petticoats 72 

2 drawers 25 

2 winter undershirts 50 

2 hats 2.00 

Shoes 7.50 

Stockings 2.00 

Total $18.14 

DaughterSj 10, 11, 12 and 13 
years : 

1 wrap $ 1.00 

2 flannelette dresses 1.40 

4 calico dresses 1.68 

2 cotton petticoats 50 

2 drawers 25 

2 winter undershirts 50 

2 hats 2.00 

Shoes 6.00 

Stockings 1.50 

Total $14.83 



Daughters, 6, 1, 8, and 9 years: 

1 wrap $ .85 

3 flannelette dresses 1.95 

3 calico dresses 1.08 

2 cotton petticoats 40 

2 drawers 20 

2 undershirts 25 

1 cap 50 

1 hat 50 

3 pairs shoes 4.50 

Stockings 1.00 

Total $11.23 

Daughters, 3, 4 c^wcZ 5 years: 

4 calico dresses $1.20 

2 flannelette dresses 80 

2 flannelette petticoats ... .42 
2 drawers 12 

2 undershirts 25 

1 cap 50 

Stockings 1.00 

3 pairs shoes 1.80 

Total $6.09 

Children, 2 years and under: 

6 calico dresses $1.14 

3 flannelette petticoats ... .38 

5 stockings 50 

Shoes 1.00 

Total $3.02 



In the case of clothing, it will be noted that the 
cost of each item is included in the table. This 
seems necessary, because, in no other way conld an 
adequate description be given of the items specified. 
For the present, no notice will be taken of the cost. 

A minimum of one gallon of kerosene per week 
was allowed for each family. The presence of 
grates and fireplaces rather than stoves, and the 
financial impossibility of the families securing 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 69 

stoves under the circumstances made the amount of 
fuel consumed rather large. No statement of fuel 
in terms of ^^ cords" or ^/tons'^ seemed possible. 

Under the term ^^ sundries'^ are included inciden- 
tal expenses for soap, starch, blueing, washing 
powder, brooms and scrubbing brushes. In estab- 
lishing this minimum standard, no provision is 
made for carfare, funeral expenses or insurance. 
A reading of the items set down as requisite to a 
minimum standard, certainly justifies the author's 
estimate that "the standard excludes everything ex- 
cept the bare necessaries of life.'' 

The same volume from which the above facts are 
taken, includes a study of the minimum standard 
of living in a group of families in Fall Eiver, Massa- 
chusetts. The amount of food required was prac- 
tically the same in the North as in the South, as was 
the amount of housing allowed for each family. 
The number of items of clothing, the amount of 
kerosene and the amount of fuel were slightly 
greater. The same allowance for sundries was 
made as in the South.^^ 

Unfortunately, none of the other studies on stand- 
ards of living have attempted to establish the mini- 
mum amount of economic goods which are absolutely 
necessary to the maintenance of existence. Neces- 
sarily, these amounts will differ with the size of the 
family, the geographic location, and the managing 
ability of the mother. Nevertheless, the study un- 
der consideration indicates that the amount of 

82 Ibid., chapter 3. 



70 FINANCING THE WAGE-EAENER'S FAMILY 

economic goods necessary to maintain existence in 
Georgia and in Massachusetts is approximately 
similar in everything except clothing, and fuel and 
light, where the difference is comparatively slight. 
It further establishes a scientific basis for deter- 
mining, by comparison, whether the amount of 
goods consumed by a given family will or will not 
maintain a minimum of existence. 

X The Fair or Normal Standard. 

The problem of a normal or fair standard of 
living is an essentially different one from the prob- 
lem of a mere existence standard. In contrasting 
the minimum standard and the fair standard, the 
author of the Federal report states — ^^The mini- 
mum standard is a standard of living so low that 
one would expect few families to live on it. It will 
be conceded that a standard of living upon which 
people are to live must include many things that 
are not allowed by the minimum standard. It must 
be a standard that provides not only for physical 
efficiency but allows for the development and satis- 
faction of human attributes. Just what is to be 
included in such a standard depends upon the people 
to whom it is applicable. Manifestly, a standard 
that would be considered fair by a laboring man 
would not appear fair to a financier. Those pos- 
sessing different degrees of wealth have come to 
look upon different things as essential to their man- 
ner of life. "2^ In such a standard^ therefore, are 

23 Ibid., p. 142, 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 71 

included a number of items additional to minimum 
requirements. A fair standard will maintain the 
health and efficiency of a family, and insure it 
against physical deterioration, poverty and mis- 
ery. 

The amount of food requisite to the maintenance 
of a fair standard is derived by the Federal inves- 
tigation, through a comparison of the dietary of the 
Federal prison and the dietary of the various fami- 
lies studied. This comparison shows ^^that for 
breakfast and dinner the quantity and quality of 
food of the families living fairly well is not far 
different from the prison diet; they have a little 
more variety, perhaps. For supper, however, the 
prison diet falls short of what the people demand as 
a fair standard for food. Bread, butter, and coffee 
are not regarded as a satisfactory meal after a long 
day's work. It is clear from the menus of those 
who are living fairly well that a fair standard must 
allow either a meat or a vegetable for supper. 
Again, the prison diet is a little low in the quantity 
of protein it furnishes. The addition of a meat or 
vegetable for supper would, perhaps, bring it 
nearer the requirements. ' ' ^^ In order to make the 
matter entirely concrete, the menu of one family, 
which was living well but not extravagantly, and 
which represented a varied diet and a complete sup- 
ply of nutrition, was adopted as representing a fair 
standard. In this family, the average value of food 
consumed per man, per week for the year was $1.67. 

24 Ibid., p. 143, 



72 FINANCING THE Y/AGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 



The menu for the week ending January 3, 1909, 
was : ^^ 

Monday. 
Breakfast: Ham, sausage, biscuit, coffee, sugar, butter, sirup. 
Dinner: Baked sweet potatoes, stewed Irish potatoes, collards 

with bacon, corn bread, biscuit, coffee. 
Supper: Ham, Irish potatoes, biscuit, coffee, butter, sirup. 

Tuesday. 

Breakfast : Fried pork (fresh), biscuit, butter, sirup, coffee, sugar. 

Dinner: Peas and bacon, butter beans, sweet potatoes, Irish po- 

tatoes, buttermilk, corn bread, biscuit, coffee. 

Supper: Beefsteak, Irish potatoes, biscuit, butter, coffee, sugar, 

sirup. 

Wednesday. 
Breakfast : Fried pork, ham, butter, cheese, biscuit, coffee, sugar. 
Dinner: Cabbage with bacon, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn 

bread, biscuit, coffee, sugar. 
Supper: Steak, rice, biscuit, butter, sirup, coffee, sugar. 

Thursday. 
Breakfast: Pork, sausage, biscuit, butter, sirup, coffee, sugar. 
Dinner: Collards and bacon, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn 

bread, biscuit, butter, buttermilk. 
Supper: Beefsteak, rice, biscuit, coffee, sirup, sugar. 

Friday. 
Breakfast: Pork, rice, biscuit, butter, coffee, sugar. 
Dinner: Peas, bacon, butter beans, sweet potatoes, fried pork, 

onions, pickles, corn bread, biscuit, coffee, sugar. 
Supper: Ham, cheese, biscuit, butter, coffee, sirup, sugar. 

Saturday. 
Breakfast: Pork and rice, biscuit, butter, sirup, coffee, sugar. 
Dinner: Collards, bacon, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn 

bread, biscuit, coffee, sugar. 
Supper: Oyster stew, fried pork, biscuit, butter, sirup, coffee, 

sugar. 

Sunday. 
Breakfast: Pork, oyster stew, biscuit, butter, coffee, sugar. 
Dinner: Beans, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, pork, biscuit, corn 

bread, coffee, sugar. 
Supper: Ham, biscuit, butter, sirup, coffee, sugar, 

25 Ibid., pp. 40-41, 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 73 

An itemized, statement of the cost of the food en- 
tering into this menu follows the menn.^^ 

No similar statement of the amount of food con- 
stituting a fair diet is given by Chapin, though he 
does estimate the cost of a fair diet at 22 cents per 
man, per day. ($1.54 per man, per week.) This 
amount, Dr. Chapin states in a footnote, is below 
Atwater's estimate— 23 cents to 25 cents per man 
per day — made in 1896 and 1897.^^ 

On the whole, the specimen menu adopted as fair 
by the Federal investigation does not seem to con- 
tain an excessive variety, and if account is taken of 
the number of ^ 4ef t-overs ' ^ consumed at subsequent 
meals, the diet becomes really much simpler than it 
appears on its face. The newer studies would 
question the amount of meat consumed as excessive. 
Yet, while this may be scientifically true, it remains 
a fact that poprlar tradition in the United States 
still over-emphasizes meat consumption. 

In the matter of housing, a fair standard demands 
that the size of the house shall vary with the size 
of the family and the age of its members. Chapin 
estimates that the minimum amount of housing, con- 
sistent with the maintenance of a normal standard, 
is one room to every one and a half persons.^^ 
This standard is adopted by Dr. Chapin because, 
^^ since none of the families include less than four 
persons, and the greater number consists of five or 
six, an allowance of four rooms would not seem 

26 Ibid., p. 41. ^8 Ibid., p. 18, 

27 Chapin, op. cit., pp. 126-7, 



74 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

to exceed, as a rule, the demands of decency." ^9 
Here no effort is made to estimate the necessary 
amount of room space on a basis of the number of 
cubic feet of air required by each member of the 
family. 

A fair standard of clothing may be readily esti- 
mated. ^'It must allow a sufficient amount so that 
there can be some expression of individual taste. 
It must allow for, not only a change of clothing for 
the sake of cleanliness, but also for Sundays and 
other holidays. In ascertaining the quantity of 
clothing necessary for the different individuals, the 
clothing lists of those families and individuals, who 
appeared to be fairly well dressed, were carefully 
considered. '^ ^^ According to this fair standard, 
the amount of clothing allowed per year for each 
member of the family in the Federal investigation 
was : ^^ 

Quantity and cost of clotJiing for a year, according to sex and age — 

Fair standard. 

Father: 3 handkerchiefs $ .30 

1 suit $14.00 Socks 2.50 

2 trousers 3.00 Barbering 1.20 

2 overalls 1.50 

1 light shirt 1.00 Total $38.50 

4 colored shirts 2.00 

2 suits underwear 2.00 ^^ns, 11 years and over: 

2 pairs shoes 4.00 1 suit $14.00 

1 pair shoes 3.00 2 trousers 3.00 

2 hats 3.00 2 overalls 1.50 

4 collars 50 2 light shirts 2.00 

1 necktie 25 4 colored shirts 2.00 

1 suspenders 25 2 suits underwear 2.00 

29 Idem. 

80 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, op. cit., p. 144. 

81 Ibid., pp. 145-146. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 



75 



3 pairs shoes $ 6.00 

1 pair shoes 3.00 

2 hats 3.00 

6 collars 75 

2 neckties 50 

1 suspenders 25 

3 handkerchiefs 30 

Socks 2.50 

Barbering 1.20 

Total $42.00 

Sons J 14j 15 and 16 years: 

2 suits $12.00 

2 trousers 2.00 

2 light shirts 2.00 

4 colored shirts 2.00 

2 overalls 1.00 

2 winter underwear 2.00 

3 pairs shoes 6.00 

2 hats 2.00 

1 cap .25 

6 collars 50 

2 neckties 50 

1 suspenders 25 

3 handkerchiefs .30 

Stockings 3.00 

Barbering 1.20 

Total $35.00 

Sons, 10, 11, 12 and 13 years: 

2 suits $ 7.00 

4 trousers 2.00 

6 shirts 1.80 

2 collars 20 

2 winter underwear 1.00 

4 pairs shoes 6.00 

2 caps 50 

1 hat 50 

1 necktie 25 

1 suspenders 25 

Stockings 2.00 

Total $21.50 

Sons, 6, 1, 8 and 9 years: 

1 suit $ 3.50 

4 trousers 1.00 



6 waists $ 1.50 

2 undershirts 50 

3 pairs shoes 4.50 

Stockings 2.00 

2 caps 50 

1 hat 50 

1 necktie 25 

Total $14.25 

Sons, 3, i and 5 years: 

1 coat $1.00 

4 trousers 1.00 

6 waists 1.50 

2 undershirts 50 

3 pairs shoes 3.00 

2 caps 50 

1 hat 25 

1 necktie 25 

Stockings 1.00 

Total $9.00 

Mother: 

1 suit $ 5.75 

2 percale waists 60 

1 flannelette waist 50 

2 white waists 2.00 

2 duck skirts 2.00 

2 calico dresses 1.50 

2 dressing sacks 60 

2 gingham aprons 50 

2 petticoats 1.60 

2 undershirts 50 

1 felt hat 2.00 

1 straw hat 2.00 

Stockings 2.00 

2 pairs shoes 4.00 

4 handkerchiefs 20 

1 lisle gloves 50 

Total $26.25 

Daughters, 11 years and over: 

1 suit $15.00 

4 white waists 4.00 

2 cotton skirts 2.00 

6 calico dresses 4.00 

2 lawn dresses 4.00 

4 aprons 1.00 



76 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 



1 sateen petticoat $ 1.00 

3 white petticoats 2.25 

4 drawers 50 

1 corset 75 

2 corset covers 50 

2 winter undershirts 60 

1 felt hat 3.75 

1 straw hat 3.00 

Stockings 2.00 

3 pairs shoes 9.00 

1 gloves 1.00 

Ribbons, belts, etc 2.00 

Handkerchiefs 1.00 

Total $57.25 

Daughters, H, 15, and 16 years: 

1 suit $ 8.00 

2 white waists 2.00 

2 gingham waists 65 

1 cotton skirt 80 

1 flannelette dress 1.30 

6 calico dresses 3.65 

1 lawn dress 1.15 

2 aprons 50 

2 petticoats 75 

4 drawers 50 

2 undershirts 50 

1 felt hat 2.00 

1 straw hat 2.00 

Stockings 2.00 

Shoes 9.00 

Ribbons, belts, etc 1.20 

Handkerchiefs 50 

Total $36.50 

Daughters, 10, 11, 12 and 13 
years : 

1 coat $ 3.00 

5 gingham dresses 3.10 

2 lawn dresses 2.10 

1 woolen dress 2.75 

4 petticoats 1.85 

4 drawers 30 

2 winter underwear 90 

1 felt hat 1.50 



1 straw hat $ 1.00 

Stockings 2.00 

4 pairs shoes 6.00 

Ribbons, etc 50 

Total $25.00 

Daughters, 6, 7, 8 and 9 years: 

1 coat $ 3.00 

6 calico dresses 2.10 

1 flannelette dress 50 

2 cotton petticoats 55 

2 flannel petticoats 1.00 

3 drawers 35 

2 winter undershirts 50 

1 felt hat 50 

1 straw hat 50 

Stockings 1.50 

3 pairs shoes 4.50 

Ribbons, etc 50 

Total $15.50 

Daughters, S, If and 5 years: 
6 calico dresses $ 2.75 

1 flannelette dress .40 

3 cotton petticoats 60 

2 flannelette petticoats . . . .60 

4 drawers 40 

2 undershirts 50 

Stockings 1.00 

Shoes 3.00 

1 felt hat 50 

1 straw hat 50 

Total $10.25 

Children 2 years and under: 

5 calico dresses $1.20 

2 flannelette dresses 65 

2 flannelette petticoats . . . .90 

3 white petticoats 50 

1 baby cap 75 

Stockings 50 

Shoes 1.50 

Total $6.00 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 77 

The amonnts of clothing allowed for the boys and 
girls over seventeen years of age — those in the 
^^ dressing stage/' is considerably in excess of the 
amounts allowed for any other members of the fam- 
ily. A legitimate objection might be nrged against 
the inclusion of these extras in a fair standard. 
The allowance made for the parents and for the 
younger children does not, however, seem at all ex- 
cessive, although it is considerably in excess of 
Chapin's estimate of the amount of clothing neces- 
sary for a fair standard, and an examination of the 
Chapin list of necessary clothing, together with the 
context in which the list is discussed, leads inev- 
itably to the conclusion that the concept of a cloth- 
ing standard held by Chapin is very similar to the 
minimum standard of the Federal investigation. 
This clothing estimate is, perhaps, the weakest point 
in the Chapin study, since the viewpoint is distinctly 
of a minimum rather than of a fair standard. The 
items presented in the Chapin study are:^^ 

For the man. 6 pairs hose $ .60 

2 hats or caps $ 2.00 2 pairs shoes 4.00 

1 overcoat 33 5.00 I^epair of shoes 1.50 

1 suit 10.00 Grioves or mittens 50 

1 pair pantaloons 2.00 

2 pairs overalls 1.50 Total $33.00 

3 working shirts 1.00 

2 white shirts 1.00 ^or each hoy, 

6 collars 60 2 hats $ 0.50 

4 ties .50 1 overcoat 2.50 

4 handkerchiefs .30 1 suit 2.50 

Summer underwear 1.00 1 pair trousers 50 

Winter underwear 1.50 2 waists 50 

32 Chapin, op. cit., p. 166. 

33 Costs $10 to $15, lasts 2 or 3 years. 



78 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 



Summer underwear $ .50 

Winter underwear 1.00 

6 pairs stockings 50 

2 pairs shoes 2.00 

Eepair of slioes 1.25 

Mittens 25 



Repair of shoes $ 1.25 

Sundries 1.00 



Total $12.00 



For washing. 
Soap, etc. ( 15 cts. a week) 
Laundry ( 5 cts. a week) , 



7.50 
2.50 



Total $10.00 



For the woman. 

1 hat 

1 cloak 34 

2 dresses of wash goods. 
1 woolen dress 

3 waists 

1 petticoat 

Linen, etc 

Summer underwear 

Winter underwear 

6 handkerchiefs 

Gloves or mittens , 

3 aprons 

6 pairs stockings 

2 pairs shoes 



.$ 1.50 
. 2.50 
. 2.50 
. 5.00 
. 1.50 

.50 
. .70 

.50 
. 1.00 

.45 
. . .50 
. .50 

.60 
. 3.00 



Total $23.00 

For the girl, 

2 hats $ 1.25 

1 cloak 2.00 

4 dresses of wash goods.. 2.00 

1 woolen dress 1.50 

4 waists 1.00 

2 petticoats 50 

Summer underwear 50 

Winter underwear 1.00 

Eibbons, etc 50 

6 handkerchiefs 25 

Gloves or mittens 25 

6 pairs stockings 50 

2 pairs shoes 2.50 

Repair of shoes 1.25 

Total $15.00 

Summary. 

For the man $ 33.00 

For the woman 23.00 

For 2 boys, each, $12.00. . 24.00 

For 1 girl 15.00 

For washing 10.00 

Total $105.00 



Chapin acknowledges that this standard is a min- 
imum. ^^Snch an estimate," lie writes, ^^presup- 
poses, on the part of the mother, a high grade of 
efficiency in mending and remaking. It makes a 
meager allowance for ontside garments, and one 
qnite insufficient for men in certain occupations. 
It seems within bounds to assume that less than $100 
will not suffice to provide decent clothing for a nor- 
mal family of five. ' ' It should be further remarked 
that the boys and girls are under fourteen years. 



84 Costs $5, lasts 2 years. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 79 

Even tlien the allowance for them seems pitifully 
small. 

A fair allowance of clothing mnst include more 
than the bare necessaries which climate and de- 
cency demand. In how far this minimum may be 
supplemented to meet the styles, and to dress for 
holidays, is an open question. A careful perusal 
of the Chapin estimate makes its insufficiency more 
apparent. The estimate of the Federal investiga- 
tion, while perhaps excessive for boys and girls 
over seventeen, seems, on the whole, to be an excel- 
lent statement of a fair clothing standard. 

The minimum amount allowed for fuel and light 
is the same as that adopted in the case of the min- 
imum standard; while an allowance is made under 
the fair standard for carfare in cities, and for health 
and insurance in both city and country districts. 
The Federal report allows a small doctor's bill, and 
*'ten cents a week for each of the parents and five 
cents a week for each of the children, regardless of 
age,'^ for insurance. Both the Chapin and Federal 
investigations allow a small amount for amusement, 
recreation, papers and the like, under a fair stand- 
ard. 

The fair or efficiency standard thus affords to a 
family, what might be described as the decencies of 
modern American life. Practically no luxuries are 
allowed, but the minimum comforts are provided 
and all of the strict necessaries of life are made 
possible. 

An attempt has been made throughout the previ- 



80 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

OTIS statements to set down, in eacli case, tlie amount 
of goods required to maintain a minimum and fair 
standard of living. Considerable difficulty was 
necessarily encountered in many cases because of*' 
the impossibility of stating such items as doctor 
services and the like in any other than money terms. 
Nevertheless, the amount of economic goods requi- 
site to maintain a standard of living is essentially 
a different matter from the cost of the standard, 
because the amount of goods entering into a stand- 
ard is practically constant while the cost of the in- 
dividual item may vary greatly from place to place. 

XL The Value of the ^^Goods^^ Standard. 

The value of considering the standard of living 
as a standard of goods is now apparent. In the 
first place, the basic factor in a standard of living, 
is the '^goods'' consumed. The matter of cost is 
a subsidiary consideration. The standard is always 
a standard of goods. Cost relates the income to 
the expenditure. A study of income and expendi- 
ture is necessarily based on cost, but a study of 
standards begins with the goods themselves. In the 
second place, no other method will furnish a basis 
for adequate comparison between localities. 

The material presented in this chapter answers 
the first question of this inquiry — ^^What amount 
of economic goods is necessary to maintain a stand- 
ard of living in the United States T^ This answer 
paves the way for an answer to the second question 
— ^'How much will these goods costT' Since the 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 81 

more important items in a standard — food, housing, 
and clothing — are definitely measurable in terms of 
the quantity of each needed to maintain a standard, 
any community may ascertain, by a little investiga- 
tion of prices, the exact cost, in that community, of 
a minimum and of a fair standard of living. 



CHAPTER III 

The Cost of a Standard of Living 

/. The Problem of Costs. 

The statement of tlie amount of goods necessary 
to the maintenance of a given standard is of very 
general application. With slight modifications, the 
Fall River schednle may be made applicable to most 
New England mill towns, while the Georgia schednle 
of necessary goods will apply, generally, to mill 
towns in the Sonth. However, in varions localities 
there is a variation in the cost of food, rent, cloth- 
ing, coal, oil and sundries. The problem of cost 
is, therefore, miich more local than that of the 
amount of goods, and mnst be, to a greater extent, 
made the subject of local treatment. Some general 
statement of cost is nevertheless possible. 

II. The Cost of the Minimum Standard. 

It is possible to state the cost of a minimum 
standard of living either in terms of the needs of 
an individual man, or of an entire family. In the 
Federal investigation, both of these methods are 
adopted. The items of expenditure are first divided 
into two classes, those items which vary with the 

82 



THE COST OF A STANDARD OF LIVING 83 

number of persons in the family, and those items 
which do not vary with the number of persons in the 
family. In North Carolina and Georgia, the cost 
of food and clothing (the items varying with the 
size of the family for different individuals) is as 
follows : ^ 

Cost of food and clothmg for a year, according to sex and age — 
Minimum standard. 
Sex and age. Food. Clothing. 

Father $74.88 $18.75 

Mother 59.90 9.25 

Males : 

17 years and over 74.88 22.25 

15 and 16 years 67.40 15.05 

14 years 59.90 15.05 

13 years 59.90 10.35 

12 years 52.42 10.35 

10 and 11 years 44.92 10.35 

6 to 9 years 37.44 10.00 

3 to 5 years 29.97 5.85 

Females : 

17 years and over 59.90 21.25 

15 and 16 years 59.90 18.14 

14 years 52.42 18.14 

13 years 52.42 14.83 

10, 11 and 12 years 44.92 14.83 

6 to 9 years 47.44 11.25 

3 to 5 ye?rs 29.97 6.09 

Children : 

2 years 29.97 3.02 

Under 2 years 22.46 3.02 

This represents in each case the minimum amount 
necessary to maintain existence. 

The cost in a minimum standard of those items 
which do not vary with the size of the family would 
be: 2 

1 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, op. cit., p. 141. 

2 Ibid., p. 141. 



84 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Rent $ 44.81 

Fuel 41.36 

Lights 7.80 

Sundries^ etc 8.50 

Total $102.47 

It is, therefore, possible by taking a given family 
to estimate the cost of the minimum standard to 
that family. For example, in a family of a man, 
wife and three children, a girl of ten, a boy of six 
and a boy of four, the cost for food and clothing 
would be : ^ 

Member of family. Food. Clothing. Total. 

Father $ 74.88 $18.75 $ 93.63 

Mother 59.90 9.25 69.15 

Girl, 10 years 44.92 14.83 59.75 

Boy, 6 years 37.44 10.00 47.44 

Boy, 4 years 29.97 5.85 35.82 

Total $247.11 $58.68 $305.79 

Adding to this total $305.79, the cost for rent, fuel, 
light and sundries ($102.47), it appears that a family 
such as the one under consideration would require 
$408.26 annually to maintain a minimum standard 
in North Carolina and Georgia. 

This standard is by no means a liberal one, and 
the probabilities of maintaining a living upon it are 
most precarious. Furthermore, ^Hhere can be no 
amusements or recreations that involve any ex- 
pense. No tobacco can be used. No newspapers 
can be purchased. The children can not go to 
school, because there will be no money to buy their 
books. Household articles that are worn out or 

8 Idem. 



THE COST OF A STANDAED OF LIVING 85 

destroyed can not be replaced. The above sum pro- 
vides for neither birth nor death nor any illness 
that demands a doctor ^s attention or calls for medi- 
cine. Even though all these things are eliminated, 
if the family is not to suffer, the mother must be a 
woman of rare ability. She must know how to 
make her own and her children's clothing; she must 
be physically able to do all of the household work, 
including the washing. And she must know enough 
to purchase with her allowance food that has the 
proper nutritive value.'' ^ Apparently, if a woman 
is to support a family on this income, she must have 
a skill and power of management which would bring 
her from $12 to $15 a week if she were at work in an 
industrial establishment. Needless to say, most 
women have no such ability, particularly in the lower 
income groups. Since the children there are forced 
to leave school early, and help to support the family, 
they miss any opportunity of securing training 
through the schools. Further, since their mothers 
were, in all probability, brought up in a similar way, 
there is nothing in the home environment stimulat- 
ing to thrift or managerial ability. Among the 
families of lowest income, where the necessity for 
thrift and careful management are the greatest, the 
opportunities that children have to learn these 
things are least. Hence the assumption of the re- 
markable qualities which the authors of the govern- 
ment study demand in a woman who is to pilot a 
Georgia family through 365 days on $408.26 is un- 

4 Ibid., p. 142. 



86 FINANCING THE WAGE-EAENER'S FAMILY 

justifiable in the extreme. The exceptional woman 
may possess them; but the average woman does not. 
Hence the estimate is decidedly low. 

The cost of a minimum standard in Fall Eiver, 
Massachusetts, varies somewhat from the cost for 
the Southern States. The food and clothing neces- 
sary for each individual appear in the following 
table : ^ 



Cost of food cmd clothing for a year, according to sex and age — 
Minimum standard. 

Sex and age. Food. Clothing. 

Father $83.20 $23.80 

Mother 66.56 15.45 

Males : 

17 years and over 83.20 27.80 

15 and 16 years 74.88 20.75 

14 years 66.56 20.75 

13 years 66.56 16.75 

12 years 58.24 16.75 

10 and 11 years 50.52 16.75 

6 to 9 years 41.60 13.25 

3 to 5 years 33.28 9.00 

Females : 

17 years and over 66.56 23.85 

15 and 16 years 66.56 20.60 

14 years 58.24 20.60 

13 years 58.24 18.50 

10 to 12 years 50.52 18.50 

6 to 9 years 41.60 16.25 

3 to 5 years 33.218 9.50 

Children : 

2 years 33.28 3.70 

Under 2 years 24.96 3.70 

The cost of those items which do not vary with the size 
of the family is — ^ 

8 Ibid., p. 237. 
« Idem* 



THE COST OF A STANDARD OF LIVING 87 

Rent $ 78.00 

Fuel 36.50 

Light 6.25 

Sundries 8.50 

Total $129.25 

A computation similar to that made for the 
Southern States shows the amount necessary to 
maintain a minimum standard of living in a normal 
familyJ 

Food. Clothing. Total. 

Father $ 83.20 $23.80 $107.00 

Mother 66.56 15.45 82.01 

Girl, 10 years 50.52 18.50 69.02 

Boy, 6 years 41.60 13.25 54.85 

Boy, 4 years 33.28 9.00 42.28 

Total $275.16 $80.00 $355.16 

The total cost of maintaining a minimum stand- 
ard of living in Fall Eiver ($484.41) is slightly in ex- 
cess of that required in the Southern States, largely 
because of the increased amount apportioned for 
food and rent. Since the housewife in Fall Eiver 
is to be the same type of super-woman as that de- 
manded in the Georgia estimate, the same objection 
holds as in that case. 

The Chapin study does not make any detailed 
statement of the cost of a minimum standard of sub- 
sistence, but the conclusions relative to incomes be- 
tween $600 and $700 may be compared with the con- 
clusions in the Federal study, since they refer to an 
essentially similar economic status. Dr. Chapin 
writes — '^It seems safe to conclude from all the 
data that we have been considering, that an in- 

7 Ibid., p. 238. 



88 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

come under $800 is not enough to permit the main- 
tenance of a normal standard. A survey of the de- 
tail of expenditure for each item in the budget shows 
some manifest deficiency for almost every family in 
the $600 and $700 groups. The housing average 
shows scarcely more than three rooms for five per- 
sons. Three-fifths of the families have less than 
four rooms and more than one and one-third per- 
sons to a room. Fuel is gathered on the street by 
half of the $600 families and by more than one-third 
of the $700 families. One-third of the $600 families 
are not able to afford gas. One-third of the $600 
families are within the 22-cent minimum limit for 
food, and 30 per cent, of the $700 families spend 22 
cents or under. In the same way the average ex- 
penditure for clothing ia neither of these groups 
reached $100, and 30 per cent, of the families are in 
receipt of gifts to eke out the supplies of clothing. 
In sickness the dispensary is the main dependence 
of these families, each of whom spends less than $10 
annually in the average, on account of health, and 
only 1 family in 10 in the $600 group, and 1 in 6 
of the $700 group, spends anything for the care of 
the teeth. The returns as to the furnishing of the 
houses show that in the $600 and $700 groups ade- 
quate furnishing is scarcely attained as the rule, and 
it is difiicult to see how it could be kept up with the 
average expenditure reported for this purpose.''^ 
In short, the families living in New York City on 

8K. C. Chapin, The Standard of Living Among WorJcingmen'a 
Families in New York City, p. 245, Charities Publication Committee, 
New York, 1909. 



THE COST OF A STANDARD OF LIVING 89 

incomes between $600 and $700 may afford none of 
the incidental expenses, and are so reduced on ex- 
penses for necessaries that a decent standard of liv- 
ing cannot be maintained. 

The Federal minimum makes no allowance for 
sickness, saving, insurance, amusement or recrea- 
tion, and the Chapin study allows little or nothing 
for these various purposes. Nevertheless, it ap- 
pears that in a large city where rents are high (the 
families with incomes between $600 and $700 paid 
an average rent of $153.59) an income less than $600 
will not provide even the necessities of existence. 
In districts, on the other hand, where expenses for 
rent are low ($44.81 in the Southern States and $78 
in Massachusetts) an income between $400 and $500 
will provide a family with the barest necessa- 
ries. 

While these facts will not justify a general state- 
ment, it seems obvious that, for the localities under 
consideration, the sums named are scarcely suffi- 
cient to prevent family dissolution. That families 
live on such incomes is beyond question. That un- 
derfeeding, congestion, insanitation, and physical 
decadence are their products needs no further as- 
sertion. 

in. The Cost of a Fair Standard of Living. 

The determination of the cost of a fair standard 
of living is similar to that of a minimum standard. 
However, the number of items allowed for a fair 
standard of living is somewhat greater, and hence 



90 FINANCING THE WAGE-EAENER'S FAMILY 

the cost of the standard exceeds, by a considerable 
amount, the cost of the minimum standard. 

In the South, the allowance in a fair standard, for 
those items which vary with the individual is as fol- 
lows : ^ 

Cost of maintenance for a year for individuals of various ages for 

those things that vary with the size of the family — 

Fair standard. 



to 

X 

CD 

OQ 
Father . . . 
Mother . . 

Males : 

17 years and 
over 

16 years 

15 years 

14 years 

13 years 

12 years .... 
10 and 11 yrs. 
6 to 9 years. 
3 to 5 years. 

Females : 

17 years and 
over 

16 years 

15 years 

14 years 

13 years 
12 years .... 
10 and 11 yrs. 
6 to 9 years. 
3 to 5 years. 



o 



.3 

o 

I— ( 






fiS s 



O 



B ^ 



.$86.84 $38.50 $3.28 $5.20 $7.80 
, 69.47 26.25 3.28 5.20 7.80 



O 

H 

$5.20 
5.20 



O 02 

r^ O 

o o 



86.84 


42.00 


78.16 


35.00 


78.16 


35.00 


69.47 


35.00 


69.47 


21.50 


60.79 


21.50 


52.10 


21.50 


43.42 


14.25 


34.74 


9.00 


69.47 


57.25 


69.47 


35.50 


69.47 


35.50 


60.79 


35.50 


60.79 


25.00 


52.10 


25.00 


52.10 


25.00 


43.42 


15.50 


34.74 


10.25 



Children : 



3.218 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.218 



3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 
3.28 



2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 



2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 
2.60 



7.80 
7.80 



$2.00 
2.00 



$146.82 
117.20 



142.52 

126.84 

119.04 

110.35 

96.85 

88.17 

81.48 

65.55 

49.62 



7.80 

7.80 



$2.00 
2.00 



2 years 

Under 2 years 



34.74 
26.05 



6.00 3.28 2.60 
6.00 3.28 2.60 



140.40 

118.65 

110.85 

102.17 

91.67 

82.98 

84.98 

66.80 

50.87 



46.62 
37.93 



' Woman and Child W age-Earner Sj op. cit., p. 150. 



THE COST OF A STANDARD OF LIVING 91 

The items which do not vary with the individual cost as 
follows : ^^ 

Cost of all articles — Fair standard. pg^. Year 

Eent $ 44.81 

Fuel 41.36 

Light 7.80 

Sundries 13.00 

Household furnishings 26.00 

Newspapers 1.00 

Church, charity 2.60 

Total $136.57 

The normal family of five would, therefore, require an 
income for the, — ^^ 

Father $146.82 

Mother 117.20 

Girl, 10 years old 84.98 

Boy^ 6 years old 65.55 

Boy, 4 years old 49.62 

Total $464.17 

Adding to this sum, the total of the items which 
do not vary with the size of the family ($136.57), 
it appears that the family income must be $600.74 
a year, if a fair standard is to be maintained. This 
amount of income ^^will enable him to furnish them 
good nourishing food and sufficient plain clothing. 
He can send his children to school. Unless a pro- 
longed or serious illness befall the family, he can pay 
for medical attention. If death should occur, insur- 
ance will meet the expense. He can provide some 
simple recreation for his family, the cost not to be 
over $15.60 for the year." ^^ 

The same relation exists between the cost of main- 

10 Ibid., p. 152. 11 Idem. 12 Ibid., pp. 152-153. 



92 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

taining a fair standard in the South and in Massa- 
chusetts as that established for the minimum stand- 
ard. The items of family expenditure which vary 
with the individual would cost in Fall Eiver: ^^ 

Cost of maintenance for a year for individuals of various ages for 

those things that vary with the size of the family — 

Fair standard. 



P3 




■ H 




1 


W OD 


i 


"2 


« 


03 


ns 


^M 


"^ 


^ 


J^"S 


cS 


M 


^ 


1 


1 


o 

5 




m 

H- 1 




1 




I 


Father . . . 


....$94.64 $45.75 $2.33 $5.20 $7.80 $5.20 $5.20 $166.12 


Mother . . . 


.... 75.71 


33.75 


2.33 


5.20 


7J80 . 




5.20 


129.99 


Males : 


















17 years 


and 
















over 


.... 94.64 


50.50 


2.33 


2.60 


7.80 . 




5.20 


163.07 


16 years 


.... 86.17 


42.45 


2.33 


2.60 


7.80 . 




5.20 


146.55 


15 years 


.... 86.17 


42.45 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


133.55 


14 years 


.... 75.71 


42.45 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


123.09 


13 years 


.... 75.71 


30.55 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


111.19 


12 years 


.... 66.24 


30.55 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


101.72 


10 and 11 


yrs. 56.78 


30.55 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


92.26 


6 to 9 years. 47.32 


17.45 


2.33 


2.60 









69.70 


3 to 5 years. 37.85 


14.50 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


57.28 


Females: 


















17 years 


and 
















over 


.... 75.71 


68.80 


2.33 


2.60 


7.80 . 




5.20 


157.44 


16 years 


.... 75.71 


37.00 


2.33 


2.60 


7.80 . 




5.L0 


130.64 


15 years 


.... 75.71 


37.00 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


117.64 


14 years 


.... 66.24 


37.00 


2.33 


2.60 








108.17 


13 years 


.... 66.24 


25.35 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


96.52 


10 to 12 


years 56.78 


25.35 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


85.96 


6 to 9 years. 47.32 


16.85 


2.33 


2.60 








69.10 


3 to 5 years. 37.85 


13.20 


2.33 


2.60 






.... 


54.98 


Children: 


















2 years . 


.... 37.85 


6.30 


2.33 


2.60 








49.08 


Under 2 


years 28.39 


6.30 


2.33 


2.60 





. . . 


.... 


39.62 



The cost of those items which do not vary with 
the size of the family is divided in the Federal re- 

18 Ibid., p. 243. 



THE COST OF A STANDARD OF LIVING 93 

port between two groups of nationalities. The only 
real difference between these two groups of nation- 
alities is the amount of rent paid, the English, Irish 
and Canadian French paying $132 per year and the 
Portuguese, Polish and Italians paying $90.96. 
There should have been no difficulty in determining 
which of these two rent expenditures provides a 
fair standard of living. However, since the report 
makes no such distinction, we may for our present 
purposes adopt the requirements of the English, 
Irish and French Canadian group. ^^ 

Cost of items that do not vary with size of family, for families of 
specified races — Fair standard. English, Irish and Canadian French, 

Rent, per year $132.00 

Fuel, per year 36.50 

Light, per year 6.25 

Sundries, per year 13.00 

Newspapers, per year 8.84 

Incidentals, per year 26.00 

Total , $222.59 

The total cost of providing a fair standard for 
the English, Irish and Canadian French normal 
family is, therefore, $731.90. 

Since the Chapin study was made for the avowed 
purpose of determining the cost of a fair standard, 
particular interest attaches to the conclusions 
reached as a result of that investigation. In sum- 
ming up the results of his study. Dr. Chapin writes, 
^^An income of $900 or more probably permits the 
maintenance of a normal standard, at least so far 
as the physical man is concerned. ' ' This statement 

14 Ibid., p. 244. 



94 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

refers to a normal family — man, wife and three chil- 
dren under fourteen, and covers conditions in New 
York City. By way of explaining the above state- 
ment, Dr. Chapin continues on the same page — ^^'An 
examination of the items of the budget shows that 
the families having from $900 to $1,000 a year are 
able, in general, to get food enough to keep soul and 
body together, and clothing and shelter enough to 
meet the most urgent demands of decency. Sixty- 
eight per cent, of the $900 families have 4 rooms 
or more, the average number of rooms being 3.75. 
The average expenditure for fuel allows comforta- 
ble provision; one-quarter of the families report 
gathering wood on the streets. Only 1 family in 6, 
in Manhattan only 1 in 15, is without gas. The av- 
erage expenditure for food is a trifle over $400, 
enough to provide adequate nourishment, and only 
5 families out of 63, or 1 in 12, report less than the 
minimum or 22 cents per man per day. As to cloth- 
ing, gifts are reported still in one-fourth of the cases, 
but the average amount expended is between $130 
and $140, and 3 families out of every 4 spend more 
than $100. Dispensaries and free hospitals are not 
for the $900 and $1,000 families the main dependence 
in cases of illness. The expenditures for furniture 
indicate that the existing outfit is fairly well main- 
tained and the equipment as it stands reported fairly 
comfortable in the case of three-fourths of the $900 
families, and of seven-eighths in the $1,000 group. 
Participation in the benefits of labor unions or re- 
ligious and fraternal organizations becomes possible 



THE COST OF A STANDARD OF LIVING 95 

to the majority of the families, and some margin is 
available for the pnrsnit of amusements and recrea- 
tion, the purchase of books and papers, and the in- 
dulgence of personal tastes outside of the indis- 
pensable necessities of existence. " ^^ 

Eegarding incomes below $900, Dr. Chapin makes 
the following statement — ^'Whether an income be- 
tween $800 and $900 can be made to suffice is a ques- 
tion to which our data do not warrant a dogmatic 
answer. ' ' ^^ The expenditures upon which these 
statements are based are most interesting. A study 
of the figures covering food, rent, fuel and light, 
clothing and sundries shows a continual increase in 
the amount expended until an income of about $1,000 
is reached. After that point, the increase in ex- 
penditure goes almost entirely to clothing and 
sundries. 

Although no accurate comparison can justly be 
made between the conclusions reached in different 
studies, it is nevertheless possible to set down side 
by side the statements made by the various investi- 
gators regarding the cost of a fair standard of liv- 
ing. In the following table there is included a re- 
sume of the study made in Homestead by Margaret 
F. Byington.^'^ Although Miss Byington's study is 
neither so complete nor so scientific as the other 
two investigators', it is nevertheless worthy of no- 
tice. 

• 15 Chaphs", op. cit. 

16 Ibid., p.^246. 

17 Maegaeet F. Byington, Homestead, chapter 6, Charities Pub- 
lication Committee, New York^ 1910. 



96 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Cost of the various items entering into a normal standard of living in 

various localities, for a family consisting of a man, wife, and 

a girl of ten, a boy of six and a hoy of four, 

Georgia 

Manhattan Fall and North 

Island. River. Carolina. Homestead. 

Food $359.00 $313.00 $289.00 $445.00 

Housing 168.00 131.00 44.81 200.00 

Clothing 113.00 136.80 113.00 175.00 

Fuel and light 41.00 42.75 49.16 46.80 

Carfare 16.00 

Health 22.00 11.65 16.40 30.00 

Insurance 18.00 18.25 18.25 95.00 

Sundry items 74.00 90.90 78.25 298.41 

Total $811.00 $745.35 $708.87 $1290.87 

The cost of a fair standard of living in the four 
gronps of families considered is remarkably similar 
for the first three and remarkably dissimilar for the 
fourth. The discrepancy between the first three 
conclusions and the fourth may be readily accounted 
for on the grounds — ^first, that Miss Byington al- 
lowed $.37 per man per day for food, while the allow- 
ance for Manhattan Island was $.22, Fall Eiver was 
$.26, and the Southern States was $.24. Miss By- 
ington ^s food bill was, therefore, 50 per cent, higher 
than that in any one of the three cases. Her allow- 
ance for sundry items is nearly $300 as opposed to 
less than $100 in the other cases. Unfortunately, 
Miss Byington 's conclusion is based on the actual 
expenditure of a number of families rather than on 
the amount of goods necessary to maintain a fair 
standard of living. With the exception of these two 
items, however, her budget does not differ materi- 
ally from that of the other studies. 

It may, therefore, be stated by way of a general 



THE COST OF A STANDARD OF LIVING 97 

conclusion, that the available data indicate that a 
man, wife and three children nnder fourteen cannot 
maintain a fair standard of living in the industrial 
towns of Eastern United States on an amount less 
than $700 a year in the Southern, and $750 a year 
in the Northern States. In the large cities, where 
rents are higher, this amount must be increased by 
at least $100. 



CHAPTER IV 
Income and Standaeds of Living . 

7. Income and Family Standards. 

The determination of the amount and tlie cost of 
a sum of goods which constitnte a standard of liv- 
ing for various localities, leads to the third and 
fonrth questions stated at the end of the first chap- 
ter — ^^Are the wages of adult males sufficient to pur- 
chase such a sum of goods?'' and ^^Does the income 
of the entire family admit of their purchase ? '^ Here 
are raised two quite distinct issues. The assumption 
that a father is responsible for financing his family 
is frequently made. Considerable opposition has 
developed to the entrance into industry of women 
and children on the ground that they were better off 
in the home. Do the present relations of possible 
income and necessary expenditure permit the father, 
unaided, to finance his family? Are the wages of 
women and children a necessary supplement to the 
earnings of men in the maintenance of a fair or a 
minimum standard of living? 

If the wage of the father proves adequate for fam- 
ily support, the issue regarding the working of 
women and children may be dealt with purely from 
the standpoint of the desirableness or undesirable- 

98 



INCOIME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 99 

ness of woman and child labor in industry. If, 
however, the wages of men are inadequate for family 
support, the whole question assumes new propor- 
tions. The issue then lies between the desirable- 
ness of woman and child work, and of an efficiency, 
or even of a subsistence family income. The statis- 
tics of income, while far from satisfactory, are much 
more complete than the statistics of standards of 
living. Though they cannot be relied upon abso- 
lutely, they do show, rather clearly, the relation of 
the wages of men, women and children to family in- 
come and expenditure. 

II. Sources of Family Income. 

There are four principal sources of family in- 
come — (1) earnings of the father; (2) earnings of 
the mother; (3) earnings of children; and (4) the 
contributions of boarders and lodgers. In addition 
to these four generally-relied upon sources, there 
are a number of accidental ones, such as kitchen 
gardens, the collection of wood, cast off clothing 
and furniture, charity contributions and the like. 
Of course, those families which live in small towns, 
and can secure, at a reasonable figure, a good sized 
tract of land, can provide a large proportion of their 
food supply, keep a cow and chickens, and sell part 
of their products. Such a family is the exception, 
however, since three-fourths of the population in in- 
dustrial districts live in towns and cities.^ In some 
cities and among some nationalities, wood collect- 

l Abstracts of the 12th Census, 



100 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

ing is an important item. Of Chapin's 391 families, 
36 per cent, report the collection of fuel on the 
streets. The Irish nse express wagons ; the Italian 
women, carrying hnge bundles of wood on their 
heads, constitute one of the sights of the Italian 
quarter. Cast off clothing and charitable assist- 
ance of various kinds are also met with in many of 
the lower income families. Chapin reports that of 
318 families, 87 reported gifts of clothing — ^^In the 
case of the families receiving gifts, however, the 
movement is quite erratic, perhaps because the 
amount of gifts received bears no necessary relation 
to income. '^ Such sources of income frequently 
exist, and an accurate analysis of the problems in- 
volved in the determination of standards of living 
must take them into consideration. For the pur- 
poses of the present chapter, however, interest does 
not center about these secondary sources of family 
income — first, because they are very insignificant at 
best, and second, because the issue here raised is a 
question of earnings — do the members of the house- 
hold earn enough to insure efficiency? 

The issues presented at this point may be sum- 
marized thus: 

1. Are the wages paid to men sufficient to enable 

them to maintain a standard of living for a 
family of three children ? 

2. If they are not in all cases sufficient, what ad- 

ditions to family income can be secured from 
sources other than the father? 



INCOME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 101 

3. Are the family incomes now secured in the 
United States sufficient to maintain a stand- 
ard of living? 

III. The Income of Adult Males. 

A number of recent investigations throw some 
light on the wage problem of the adult male. The 
most reliable of these investigations appear in the 
Federal Report on Wages and Hours of Labor in the 
Steel Industry (1912) ; the Federal Report on the 
South Bethlehem Steel Works (1910) ; the Statis- 
tics of the State Labor Bureaus of Massachusetts, 
New Jersey, California, Wisconsin, and Kansas; 
the Federal Investigation of Telephone Companies; 
the Census of Manufacturers (1905) ; and the An- 
nual Reports of the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
sion. Although) the reliability of these statistics 
varies,^ they are all worthy of statistical considera- 
tion. 

The Census of Manufacturers for 1905 contains 
the most extended data, as it includes a compilation 
of the wages of more than two- and a half million 
men 16 years of age and over.^ The figures fur- 
nished by the manufacturers relate to the week in 
1905 during which the largest number of persons 
were employed. The statistics include reports on 47 
per cent, of all male wage-earners engaged in manu- 

^ Scott Neaeing, Wages in the United States, p. 210, The Mac- 
millan Company, New York, 1911. 

3 Census of Manufacturers of 1905. The Earnings of Wage-Earn- 
ers, Census Bulletin No. 93, Government Printing Office, Washing- 
ton, 1908. 



102 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

facturing in the United States. Of the total male 
employes reported on (2,619,053) a quarter received 
less than $8 per week ; three-tif ths received nnder $12 
per week; fonr-fifths nnder $15 per week; and 
only 6 per cent, were paid more than $20 per week.^ 

The steel industry which employs male workers 
only, and in which the number of boys is small as 
compared with textile and similar industries, shows 
a wage similar to that for adult males employed in 
all manufacturing industries. The recent Federal 
report ^ includes a study of 172,706 men in all de- 
partments of the Iron and Steel Industry. The 
wages are stated in terms of ^^ cents per hour,'^ in- 
stead of in weekly wages. However, an approxi- 
mation to the weekly wage may be made by multi- 
plying the wage per hour by the number of hours 
worked per week in a department. Such a calcula- 
tion shows that 8 per cent, of the men were receiving 
less than $8 per week ; that 50 per cent, were receiv- 
ing less than $12 per week; that 76 per cent, were 
receiving less than $15 per week; while 86 per cent, 
were receiving less than $20 per week. 

Two other investigations of very recent date, re- 
late to the textile industries. One made by the 
United States Commissioner of Labor at the time 
of the strike in the textile mills at Lawrence, Mass., 
finds that in the woolen and worsted and cotton mills 
of Lawrence, the actual earnings of all male wage- 

4 Ibid., p. 11. 

f> Report on Conditions of Employment in the Iron and Steel In," 
dustry, 62nd Congress, Second Session, Senate Doc. 301, 



INCOME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 103 

earners eighteen years of age and over, during the 
week for which data was secured, were : ^ 

Under $7 per week — 17.5 per cent, of the males. 
Under $10 per week — 56.4 per cent, of the males. 
Under $12 per week — 69.8 per cent, of the males. 

The second investigation, made in Little Falls, 
N: Y., a town devoted to the manufacture of hosiery, 
among eight hundred male workers, showed that the 
weekly earnings for three weeks in September, 1912, 
were : '^ 

Under $7 per week — 17.46 per cent, of the males. 
Under $10 per week — 63.31 per cent, of the males. 
Under $12 per week — 76.73 per cent, of the males. 

The results of both investigations are quite uni- 
form. More than half of the males are earning less 
than ten dollars per week, while about three-quar- 
ters receive less than twelve dollars per week. 

The State reports, relating to wages in all indus- 
tries, corroborate these figures to a remarkable de- 
gree. The two latest that have come to hand (New 
Jersey and California) show the wages of males 
employed in all of the industries of those States. 

Males earning per week — ^New Jersey (1911.) ® 
Under $7 per week — 10 per cent. 

6 Chas. p. Neill, Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Law- 
rence, Mass., in 1912, p. 74, Government Printing Office, Washington, 
1912. 

7 The Little Falls Textile Workers Dispute. Advance Reprint for 
the N. Y. Dept. of Labor Bulletin, March, 1913, p. 10, Albany, Dept. 
of Labor, 1913. 

8 Bureau of Statistics of New Jersey, 1911, p. 122, Camden, 1912. 



104 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER ^S FAMILY 

Under $10 per week — 36 per cent. 

Under $12 per week — 54 per cent. 

Total males— 243,753. 

Males earning per week — California (1911.) ^ 

Less than $9^ — 15 per cent. . 

Less than $12: — 28 per cent. 

Less than $15^ — 43 per cent. 

Less than $20^ — 75 per cent. 

The New Jersey statistics are typical of the wage 
situation in the East. Although somewhat higher 
wages are paid in the industries of the State at large 
than are paid in the textile industries of the East, 
they are typical of miscellaneous industries in such 
of the Eastern States as have collected wage statis- 
tics. The wage scale on the Pacific Coast is on a 
distinctly higher plane.^^ Unfortunately, however, 
no study of standards there is available, and com- 
parisons are therefore impossible. 

If a generalization may be made on such inade- 
quate data, it may be stated that the wages of adult 
males in those industries situated east of the Eocky 
Mountains, for which figures are available, half of 
the adult males receive less than $600' a year, that 
three-fourths are paid less than $750 a year, while 
nine-tenths earn a wage under $1,000 a year. 

At the end of an exhaustive consideration of the 
wage statistics published at a slightly earlier period, 

9 Biennial Report, Bureau of Labor Statistics, California, 1911-12, 
p. 458, Sacramento, 1912. 

10 Scott Nearing, Wages in the United States, Chap. VIII, The 
Macmillan Co., New York, 1911. 



INC0]\1E AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 105 

Dr. Streightoff writes — ^^It is reasonable to believe 
that in 1904, something over sixty per cent, of the 
males at least sixteen years of age, employed in 
manufacturing, mining, trade, transportation, and 
a few other occupations associated with industrial 
life, were earning less than $626 per annum, about 
thirty per cent, were receiving $626 but under $1,000, 
and perhaps ten per cent, enjoyed labor incomes of 
at least $1,000.^1 

All of this wage material, however, is secured by 
computing the weekly wage in a week during which 
there was the greatest amount of employment, or by 
computing an annual income from the hourly wage 
or the weekly wage. In neither case is allowance 
made for unemployment. An estimate of its preva- 
lence may, however, be made from the material pre- 
sented in the Census of Manufacturers (1905), from 
the Eeports of the New York, Massachusetts and 
New Jersey Bureaus of Labor, and from the Ee- 
ports of the United States Geological Survey, Un- 
employment varies with the year, with the season of 
the year, and markedly with the industry. Yet, if 
a general statement in so variable a case is permis- 
sible, it may be concluded that the average wage- 
earner may expect an amount of unemployment 
equivalent to one-fifth of his working time.^^ 

11 F. H. Streightoff, The Distribution of Income in the United 
States, Columbia University, New York, 1912. A full discussion of 
the various sources of data on wages will be found in the above 
book and in M^ages in the United States, Scott Nearing, The Mac- 
millan Co., 1911. 

12 Scott Nearing, Unemployment in the U, 8., p. 539, Quarterly 
Publications of the American Statistical Association, Sept., 1909. 



106 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Making this reduction from the total annual earn- 
ings as computed from the weekly or hourly earn- 
ings, it appears that, in the district lying east of the 
Eocky Mountains and north of the Maryland and 
Dixon Line, ^^half of the adult males in the United 
States are earning less than $500 a year ; that three- 
fourths of them are earning less than $600 annually ; 
that nine-tenths of them are receiving less than $800 
a year; while less than ten per cent, receive more 
than that figure.'^ ^^ 

Although this statement of wages is necessa'rily an 
estimate rather than an emphatically accurate state- 
ment, it is based on a number of very diverse sources 
of information which are all remarkably similar in 
their result, and which in the cases of the Iron and 
Steel investigation. The Bethlehem Steel Works in- 
vestigation, The Federal investigation at Lawrence 
and the New York study at Little Falls and the State 
statistics of Massachusetts and New Jersey are 
fairly accurate. 

A comparison of this statement with the data 
relative to the cost of a standard of living, leads to 
the conclusion that since a minimum standard of 
living for a normal family costs from $450 in a small 
industrial town to $650 in a large city that approxi- 
mately half of the male wage-earners under consid- 
eration are unable to provide a minimum standard 
in a small town and approximately three-fourths 
are unable to provide a minimum standard in a 
large city. On the other hand, since a fair or an 

13 Wages in the United States, op. cit., p. 213. 



INCOME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 107 

efficiency standard for a normal family involves an 
outlay of from $600 in a small industrial town to 
$900 in a large city, three-fourths of the wage-earners 
in small towns and nine-tenths of the wage-earners 
in large cities are unable to provide a fair or effi- 
ciency standard for a normal family. 

The statement cannot be too often reiterated, nor 
too strongly emphasized, that these figures are esti- 
mates. They are stated in bald fractions, because 
the facts on which they are based do not justify any 
other form of statement. No competent statistician 
would venture an even approximate general judg- 
ment on material of sO' scanty a character as that 
provided by the investigations in Fall Eiver, North 
Carolina, Georgia, New York City and Homestead. 
The wage facts are likewise extremely inadequate. 

On the other hand, it is obvious that the available 
facts all point in the same direction, thus corrobo- 
rating one another to a surprising extent. A care- 
ful perusal of the Federal or of the Chapin studies 
fails to show the inclusion of any items which seem 
unnecessary to a minimum or fair standard of liv- 
ing. While common experience with wage condi- 
tions, together with all of the supplementary data 
recently published regarding- wages in various in- 
dustries, confirm the wage statistics. 

Despite the inadequacy of the figures upon which 
the conclusion is based, it is nevertheless true that 
until some figures are adduced which at least point 
in the opposite direction, it is fair to assert that it 
is financially impossible for an overwhelming ma- 



108 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

jority of male wage-earners in the industries for 
which facts are available to provide a fair standard 
cf living for a family of three children, and further 
that a considerable proportion of these wage-earn- 
ers do not receive a wage large enough to pro- 
vide even a minimum standard of living for such a 
family. 

It does not at all follow from this statement that 
such a proportion of families fail to secure a min- 
imum or a fair standard of living. On the contrary, 
the wages of the men are supplemented by the earn- 
ings of women and children, and by other secondary 
income sources, to an extent which adds considerably 
to the possibilities of family income. 

IV. Contributions of Women and Children to 
Family Income. 

There are, then, a considerable number of adult 
males working in the industrial districts of the 
United States whose wage is insufficient to provide 
minimum or subsistence standard of living, while 
an over-whelming majority receive a wage insuffi- 
cient to provide an efficiency or fair standard. 
Hence the patent necessity for some additions to the 
father's wage through the efforts of the mother and 
the children. 

Aside from individual family budgets which detail 
sources of income, it is difficult to discover the earn- 
ing capacity of the mother and children. The total 
number of married women and of children who work 
is comparatively small. Only 5.6 per cent, of all 



INCOME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 109 

married women in the United States are gainfully 
employed, while the number of children at work is 
approximately one million and three-quarters. 

Of the 588,599 women sixteen years of age and 
over, reported on by the Federal Census of Manu- 
facturers in 1905, 7.5 per cent, received less than $3 
a week ; 33.5 per cent, received less than $5 per week ; 
66.3 per cent, were paid a wage under $7 a week; 
91.7 per cent, were paid less than $10 per week, 
leaving only 8.3 per cent, receiving wages of more 
than $10 per week. 

Miss Butler ^s study of the wages of women in 
thirty-four Baltimore department stores leads her 
to the conclusion that — ^^Of 4,048 women in differ- 
ent wage groups, it is of interest that 2,184, or fifty- 
four per cent., are earning $5 or less, and that 3,266, 
or eighty-one per cent., are earning $6 or less.'^ ^^ 

The Federal study includes investigations in five 
industries. The wages of women, as found in these 
industries, were: 

Percentage of females earning certain weekly wages. 

Under Under Under Under 

$4 $6 $8 $10 
Silk 

New Jersey and Pennsylvania is 37.7 70.7 84.4 96.2 

Cotton Textile 

New England 16 14.6 40.2 69.0 87.1 

Southern 39.7 73.9 93.0 98.6 

Stores 17 7. 30.8 76.2 94.3 

Men's clothing is 22.7 51.7 74.6 88.6 

14 E. B. Butler, Salesivomen in Mercantile StoreSj p. 113, Chari- 
ties Publication Committee, New York, 1912. 

15 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 15. i 

16 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 305. 

17 Ibid., vol. 5, p. 41. 

18 Ibid., vol. 2, p. 129. 



110 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

These instances more than bear out the general 
conclusion regarding the wages of females in Ameri- 
can industry. ^'Three-fifths of the women receive 
less than $8 per week ($400 per year), while a van- 
ishing percentage of them is paid more than $15 per 
week ($750 per year). Nearly nine-tenths of the 
women employed in these various states and trades 
are paid less than $12 per week ($600 per year).'^ ^^ 
From these statements, it appears that three-fifths 
of the adult women employed in the United States 
receive less than $400 annually; that four-fifths are 
receiving less than $600 a year; that nine-tenths are 
earning less than $750 a year; while one-twentieth 
are paid more than $750 a year. 

As in the case of men, a deduction should be made 
for unemployment owing to the unskilled, casual 
character of the work done by most women. This 
deduction should probably be greater, though there 
is no way of telling by how much. The possible 
contributions of women to family income are thus 
severely limited by the low wages of women 
workers. The wife, if she can hold a regular posi- 
tion, may, however, earn sixty per cent, as much as 
her husband. 

The only source of information regarding the 
wages of children under fourteen is furnished by the 
Federal study of Woman and Child Wage-Earners. 
From this study, it appears that in the silk industry 
in New Jersey and Pennsylvania the earnings of 
children under fourteen amount to $115 per 

^Q Wages in the United States, op. cit., pp. 211-12. 



INCOME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 111 

year ; ^^ that in the glass industry the average annual 
earnings of children under fourteen years were 
$119 ; -^ that in the men's clothing industry the aver- 
age annual earnings of children under fourteen were 
$78 ; ^^ while in the cotton textile industry the aver- 
age annual earnings of children under fourteen 
were, in New England, $22, and in the Southern 
States $114. From this data, we may conclude that 
while the additions to family income made by chil- 
dren under fourteen are very inconsiderable, the 
wages of adult women may add from $200 to $450 a 
year to the income of the family. 

It may be stated in conclusion — if such frag- 
mentary figures justify a conclusion, that the wife, 
regularly employed may earn, perhaps, three-fifths 
as much as her husband, while the child under four- 
teen, in the few States, and in the few industries, 
where employment is possible, may receive an in- 
come equal to a fifth or a sixth of that paid to his 
father. 

These things may be, but the vital question at 
issue is, are they? To what extent do women and 
children under fourteen actually contribute to the 
family income? 

V. Percentage of Family Income Derived from 
Various Sources. 

It is not all clear just what percentage of family 
income is derived from the various sources. The 

20 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 258. 

21 Ibid., vol. 3, p. 524. 

22 Ibid., vol. 2, p. 364. 



112 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

matter is further obscured by tbe wide divergence 
in the results attained by the several studies. 
Whether this divergence be due to the varying lo- 
cality, occupation or nationality of the families un- 
der discussion must remain a matter of opinion. 
The facts themselves do not answer the question. 

The data on the Federal study of Woman and 
Child Wage-Earners is, of course, collected from 
families in which there are women and children at 
work. Since only 5.6 per cent, of married women 
are gainfully occupied, the results of the Federal 
study would be applicable to only a small propor- 
tion of the population. Collected in four industries 
(silk, glass, clothing and cotton) in which a large 
proportion of women and children are employed, 
the conclusions based on such data are certainly 
not applicable to steel making, and railroading in 
which men alone work. An example of the Federal 
study figures follows: 

Earnings of vnves having husbands at work. 



Total 
families. 


Total family 
income. 


Earnings 
of wives. 


Per cent, of 
family in- 
come earned 
by wife. 


Silk 2S 








New Jersey 116 

Pennsylvania ... 33 


$ 884 
750 


$276 
122 


31 
16 


Cotton 24 








New England .. 112 
Southern 143 


1034 
764 


306 
183 


30 
24 



2S Woman and Child Wage-Earners, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 277. 
»* Ibid., p. 465. 



INCOLIE AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 113 

The Eeport of the United States Bureau of Labor 
of 1903 covering all industries, shows the following 
distribution of family income : 

Summary of families having an income from various sources hy gen- 
eral nativity of head of family. "^^ 

Per cent, of families with 

Families. an income from occu- Boarders 

Average pation of Other and 

Number, size, husbands, wives, children, sources, lodgers. 

Native ..15,161 4.67 96.23 8.84 18.65 14.08 21.81 

Foreign .10,279 5.18 95.46 8.10 27.40 14.75 25.40 

Total 25,440 4.88 95.92 8.54 22.19 14.35 23.26 

The student must bear in mind the fact that these 
figures of the Bureau of Labor refer entirely to 
the source and not at all to the amount of the con- 
tribution. The table shows that fathers contributed 
to family income in ninety-five per cent, of the cases 
— not that fathers contributed ninety-five per cent, 
of the income. Of these 25,440 families, more than 
nine-tenths derive income from husbands; one- 
twelfth have an income from wives; one-fifth an in- 
come from children; one-fifth an income from board- 
ers and lodgers and one-sixth from other sources. 

The extent to which the various sources con- 
tributed to family income is a very different matter. 
In this group of 25,440 families, the proportion of 
income secured from the various sources was : 

Husbands 79.49 

Wives 1.47 

Children 9.49 

Boarders and lodgers 7.78 

Other sources 1.77 

Total 100% 

25 Cost of Living and Retail Prices of Food, Commissioner of La- 
bor, 1903, p. 51, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1904. 



114 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

The contribution of husbands, including those 
families in which there were no husbands consti- 
tutes four-fifths of the whole income. Women and 
children together contribute one-tenth, while board- 
ers and lodgers supply the remaining tenth. 

By far the most helpful data is that furnished by 
Chapin : ^^ 



Sources of income 


Averag 


es and percentages by income 


J. 










a)?r>- 


&£ 


. -i^ 


1 


rA'*i 


i 


11 


6 

la 


Earnin 
of f atli( 
Per cen 




From 
lodgers 
Per cen 


o 

1 


CO rt 

§1 


; 400- 499 


8 


$ 452.38 


96.8 


2.2 


1.0 






500- 599 


17 


544.11 


93.6 


3.2 


3.2 






600- 699 


72 


650.17 


94.0 


2.3 


2.8 




0.9 


700- 799 


79 


748.33 


89.5 


4.8 


5.2 




0.5 


800- 899 


73 


846.26 


84.2 


9.7 


5.5 




0.6 


900- 999 


63 


942.03 


85.0 


11.4 


3.1 




0.5 


1000-1099 


31 


1044.48 


81.7 


11.6 


5.8 




0.9 


1100-1199 


18 


1137.42 


88.3 


6.1 


4.3 




1.3 


1200-1299 


8 


1256.25 


80.6 


11.1 


8.3 






1300-1399 


8 


1344.12 


76.5 


7.0 


16.5 






1400-1499 


1 


1425.00 


91.2 










1500-1599 


6 


1518.47 


81.4 


7.9 


6.2 




4.5 



While the number of families under consideration 
is small, the conclusions are fully as reliable as those 
to be made from the Federal investigation. No 
where in the different income groups does the father 
earn less than four-fifths of the income, and in four 
of the twelve groups, he earns more than nine-tenths 
of the total income. While the earnings of the 
mother are not separated from those of the children, 
the total from these two sources is, in almost all 
classes, less than 10 per cent.^'^ 

26 Chapin, op. cit., p. 63. 

27 The budgets of 212 Minnesota families (living in Minneapolis 



INCOIVIE AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 115 

The great discrepancy between the percentage of 
income earned by the father in those families re- 
ported upon by the Federal investigation and by 
the United States Commissioner of Labor, and those 
reported on by Chapin, is probably the result of 
the method in which the first report was prepared. 
Since its object was to deal with the earnings of 
women and children, it naturally dealt with those 
families in which both women and children worked. 
Hence, the investigation was necessarily made in 
that comparatively small group of families (appar- 
ently less than 10 per cent.) in which the mother is 
called upon to contribute. 

In so far as the other two investigations permit 
of a summary, they show that at least four-fifths 
of the family income is contributed by the husband ; 
that the wife and children contribute one-tenth, 
while boarders and lodgers contribute the remaining 
tenth. Since the present study has assumed a 
family of five, consisting of husband, wife, and 
three children, boarders and lodgers cannot be 
looked upon as a source of family income unless 
some provision be made in the budget for the in- 
creased amount of food and house room necessary 
for them. 

and Duluth) collected for the British Board of Trade, are analyzed 
in the Report of the Bureau of Labor (Minnesota) 1909-10, pp. 559- 
567. The percentage of weekly income earned by the fathers in all 
families was 81.6 per cent. In the families having 2, 3, and 4 mem- 
bers, however, the percentage earned by the father was 94 per cent., 
or 95 per cent, in each case. In families of eight, the percentage 
falls to 64.7 per cent. Thus the small and, by inference, the young 
families, depended almost wholly on the father. Of the entire 212 
families, 129 or 60 per cent, were supported wholly by the father. 



116 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

VI. Incomes and Standards in Fall River, Massa- 
chusetts. 

Since general eomparibons are never so effective 
as specific ones, the value of a study of living stand- 
ards would be greatly enhanced if it were possible 
to take a specific town, or a specific industry, and 
contrast the amount necessary to procure a stand- 
ard of living in that town or that industry, with the 
wages actually paid there. Only one such contrast 
can be made. While it is not in any sense conclu- 
sive, it is highly interesting and suggestive. 

Fall Eiver, Massachusetts, was, in 1908, the sub- 
ject of two investigations — one by- the agents of the 
Federal Bureau of Labor into standards of living, 
the other by the State Bureau of Statistics, into 
wages. A typical industrial town, dependent upon 
one industry. Fall Eiver stands as the only instance 
of a locality in which good data regarding both 
wages and standards have been secured. 

The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics reports 
that in 1908 there were 29,758 wage-earners in Fall 
Eiver of whom 24,225 (80 per cent.) were engaged 
in the cotton industry. Fall Eiver is thus almost 
exclusively a cotton mill town.^^ 

The exact wage figures for Fall Eiver are not 
available, but the wages of adult males (21 years 
of age and over) engaged in the cotton industry of 
Massachusetts are available, and under the circum- 

28 Statistics of Manufacturers, Public Document, No. 36, 1908, p. 4, 
Boston, 1909. 



INCOME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 117 

stances, they may be compared with the Fall Eiver 
standards study — first, because somewhat more than 
one-fourth of all the employes in the Massachu- 
setts cotton industry are in Fall Eiver (24,225 out 
of 90,935) ; and second, because the statistics of av- 
erage wages show a comparatively slight variation 
in the wages of cotton mill operatives in the leading 
cotton manufacturing towns. The average wages 
of all cotton mill employes in the four largest cen- 
ters were: ^^ 

Fall Eiver $447.40 

Lawrence 437.54 

LoweU 444.77 

Winchester .... 433.74 

The extreme in variation ("Winchester to Fall 
"River) is less than three per cent. The wage sta- 
tistics of the cotton industry in the State at large 
may, therefore, be fairly compared with the stand- 
ards of living established for Fall Eiver. 

The same report which gives the earnings of 
adult males contains the statement that in the year 
under consideration the ^^ average number of days 
in operation" for cotton mills was 269.62 (86 per 
cent, of the total possible working time) ; and the 
^^ average proportion of business done" was 75.92 
per cent.^^ Evidently, therefore, at some of the 
time during which the mills were in operation they 
were not running a full quota of employes. With- 
out taking any account of sickness and accident — 
two inevitable causes of unemployment — ^it is most 

29 Ibid., pp. 17-24. 80 Ibid., p. 125. 



118 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNEE'S FAMILY 

conservative to say that the Tinemploymeiit in the 
cotton industry equaled 20 per cent. In the com- 
putation of annual from weekly earnings^ a deduction 
of 20 per cent, has, therefore, been made. 

Cumulative percentage of adult males (21 years of age and over) 

ea/rning weekly and yearly wages. Cotton goods 

industry — Mass., 1908,^^ 

Earned per Earned per 

week, year, 

Per cent. less than less than 

16 $7 $291 

69 10 461 

91 15 624 

97 20 816 

Apparently, three-fifths of the adult males in the 
cotton industry of Massachusetts — and by inference 
in Fall Eiver — ^^earned less than $416 per year; nine- 
tenths earned less than $624 per year; while only 
three in a hundred earned more than $816 per year. 
Compare these figures with the $484.41, minimum 
standard, and the $690.95, efficiency standard, es- 
tablished for Fall Eiver by the Federal study, and it 
appears that the wages earned by males over twenty- 
one years of age, are, in over half of the cases, in- 
sufficient to maintain a minimum standard, and in 
over nine-tenths of the cases insufficient to maintain 
a fair standard for a family of three children.^^ 

Statisticians will exclaim that such a comparison 

SI Ibid., p. 91. ^ 

32 It should be borne in mind that the cotton goods industry is one 
of the lowest paid industries in the United States — one of the in- 
dustries in which one would expect to find the greatest discrepancy 
between wages and standards. See Scott Nearing, Wages in the 
United States, Chapters 3 and 4, The Macmillan Co., New York, 
1911. 



INCOME AND STANDARDS OF LIVING 119 

is crude. It is crude. They will object that the 
basis in fact is not adequate to warrant the conclu- 
sion. That is true. They will insist that inference 
has no place in statistical literature. No objection 
could be more justifiable. Nevertheless, in the face 
of such valid criticism, the fact remains that the 
one case in which comparable statistics of stand- 
ards and wages are available, confirms the impres- 
sion of the general statistics regarding the utter 
inadequacy of the wages of many adult males to 
provide efficiency or even subsistence for their fam- 
ilies. 

VII. The Family Standard. 

The discussion in this chapter has been confined 
wholly to an arbitrarily selected family, consisting 
of a man, wife and three children under fourteen. 
Obviously, only a small proportion of the total fam- 
ilies in the United States fall within this class. Ac- 
cording to the Census of 1900,^^ there were in the 
country at large 16,739,797 families of which — 

17.5 per cent, were composed of 3 persons 
17.0 per cent, were composed of 4 persons 
14.2 per cent, were composed of 5 persons 
10.8 per cent, were composed of 6 persons 
7.7 per cent, were composed of 7 persons 

The arbitrary family is selected, because no dis- 
cussion could be carried on in the absence of some 
standard. It remains true, therefore, that the con- 
clusions here reached apply, not to all families in 

33 Population in Census of 1900, vol. II, p. clix. 



120 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

the United States, but to families of this specified 
size. It is also true, however, that by a little com- 
putation, standards could be erected and conclusions 
reached for a family of any size under similar con- 
ditions. It is undoubtedly true that a family of two 
— a man and wife — could maintain a very decent 
existence, even in the large cities on $600 per year. 
On the other hand, a family of eight children, would 
encounter difficulties of the direst sort on an income 
of $900. 

It is not important that any particular size of 
family be selected; it is not important that these 
conclusions regarding that family be accepted as 
final. The really vital thing is that the public shall 
come to believe that standards of living are suscep- 
tible of definite measurement; that comparisons 
may be made between wages and standards; that 
each family has a definite problem in finance; and 
that these problems constitute, in the aggregate, 
the problem of the standard of living — a problem 
which must be met and mastered in the same reso- 
lute, dispassionate spirit that has marked man'si 
mastery of chemistry and electricity. 



CHAPTER V 

The Ameeican Wage-Eahi^er and Living Standards 

I. The Issue before the Wage-Earner. 

Finally, nearly every v^age-earner faces the 
problem of family finance, either as a prospective 
bridegroom or as a father. Anxions to insure the 
well-being of his children, he mnst consider the pos- 
sibilities of income and the exigencies of expendi- 
ture. To the v^age-earner individually as well as 
collectively, the financial problem presses con- 
stantly for palliation or solution. 

Yonder stands a man of twenty, brought into the 
world by no wish of his own; cared for by his 
father's toil; educated at the State's expense; 
trained as a worker on woolen goods from the day 
when he left school at fourteen. No torturing 
genius burns within his placid soul ; his breast holds 
none of the secrets of mechanical progress ; with the 
capacity and foresight of an average healthy man 
he faces the life which stretches away before him 
for twenty, thirty, or perhaps forty years. He is 
earning, at the present time, while work is good, 
eleven dollars a week (five hundred seventy-two dol- 
lars a year) — an amount which is sufficient to sup- 
ply all of the necessaries and many of the comforts 

121 



122 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

of single life. Will liis wage buy enough food, 
clothing, and shelter for a wife and two, three or 
perhaps five children? A weaver he is and a 
weaver he will live and die — can he then afford to 
marry? 

Continue the question for five years. Meanwhile 
the man has gone the way of most flesh, married 
and shouldered the responsibilities of a family of 
three children — surely not an extravagant family, 
even in these latter days of extravagance. Can he 
give these children a fair chance in the world where 
they must compete for a livelihood? Will they be 
well fed, clothed and educated? Will their young 
lives be fresh and free, unhampered by misery and 
want? Will this man's wage support a family of 
five in decency? 

These are two practical questions which men 
everywhere must face. These are two issues, in- 
tensely human in all that they connote. ^^Can I 
afford to marry?'' ^^How will we tide over this 
winter with our kiddies?" Here stands the con- 
crete question of wages and standards of living, in 
all of its phases. 

11. The Necessity for an Efficiency Standard of 

Living. 

Apart from the question of the individual man 
or of the individual family, the problem presents 
an abstract, theoretical phase also in the ^'efficiency" 
viewpoint of society. The prevalence of the ^' effi- 
ciency-idea" in the industrial, political, religious 



WAGE-EARNER AND STANDARDS 123 

and social atmosphere, makes any discussion of it 
superfluous. Even the fastest runners may read 
the plain writing on the signboards of progress. 
The dullest of wit have grasped the importance of 
using sharp tools. Whether behind the gun or be- 
hind the steam shovel, the man must be accurate, 
keen, vigorous, energetic. Efficiency pays. 

Perhaps the efficiency idea has taken the strong- 
est hold in Germany, but America has been quick to 
follow her rival's lead. From the conservation of 
resources to the icing of milk, from the stitching 
of a shoe to the welding of a rivet, efficiency holds 
sway. Of this gospel of efficiency, scientific man- 
agement is the apotheosis. 

Conservation, icing, stitching, riveting — even sci- 
entific management itself depends, in the last 
analysis, upon muscle, brain, and virility. Effi- 
ciency is based on manhood. Manhood involves good 
feeding, sanitary housing, adequate clothing, recrea- 
tion and education. The nation which provides 
these things for its citizens is efficient; the nation 
which fails to provide them is not efficient, hence 
national efficiency must rest, in the last analysis, on 
efficiency standards of living. The problems in- 
volved in wages, prices, and living standards thus 
assume a grave importance in national polity. The 
question of the efficiency or inefficiency of living con- 
ditions forges to the front as one of prime interest. 
How many battleships shall we build? Can this 
foreign market be conquered? Ask, rather, whether 
the standard of American living will man the ship. 



124 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

or produce with such, efficiency as to secure a 
market. 

in. The Determination of an Efficiency Standard. 

It is comparatively easy to determine the char- 
acter of a standard of living. There is an irreduci- 
ble minimum of food, clothing, housing, medical 
attention and recreation necessary to the mainte- 
nance of life; there is a larger, but a no less de- 
terminable amount of economic goods included in 
a standard of living which will insure physical ef- 
ficiency. These amounts of goods may vary with 
nationality and locality, but for any given family, 
they are well-nigh absolute. 

Given a unit family of five, it is possible to deter- 
mine the amount of food, clothing, housing and the 
other necessaries which such a family requires. The 
list of goods, once secured, may be appraised at the 
market rates in any locality. Thus a basis is estab- 
lished on which the relative efficiency of standards 
may be determined. 

IV. The Cost of a Standard of Living. 

What will a standard of living cost? The answer 
must vary with the town, and even with the section 
of the town, yet the studies which have been made, 
show that certain limits may be set. The variation 
in the cost of the different items of the family bud- 
get is not so extensive as has sometimes been as- 
sumed. The comparative tables prepared for the 



WAGE-EARNER AND STANDARDS 125 

British Board of Trade show that food and rent, 
the two largest items of the family budget, do not 
vary greatly from one American city to another. 
On the other hand, the intensive studies made by 
Chapin, in New York ; by the Federal Authorities in 
Fall Eiver, North Carolina and Georgia; by Miss 
Byington in Homestead; by the New York com- 
mittee in Buffalo; by Mrs. More; and the less re- 
liable, incidental data furnished by Streightoff ; ^ by 
Mrs. Bruere; ^ and by a host of writers who have 
popularized the various problems involved in mak- 
ing income cover needs and wants, all tend to the 
same conclusion — namely — that a family of five — a 
man, wife and three children under fourteen require 
from $400 to $600 to provide subsistence, and from 
$650 to $1,000 to insure efficiency. The variations 
occur between different sections of the country, be- 
tween different cities, and cities and towns. 

In every city as well as in every town and hamlet, 
there is a minimum of economic goods necessary for 
subsistence and for efficiency, and hence there is a 
minimum cost for such items. Below the minimum 
of efficiency lies insufficient education; absence of 
decency and privacy ; ill-ventilated rooms ; unhand- 
some clothing; and food ill-adapted for nutrition. 
Below the standard of subsistence lies family dis- 
solution, misery, want, starvation, disease, and 
death. These inevitable things, following as night 

1 F. H. Streightoff, The Standard of Living, Chapter II, Hough- 
ton, Mifflin Co., Boston 1911. 

2 See a series of articles in the New York Outlook, New York, 1911- 
1912. 



126 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

follows day, present themselves to the consciousness 
of the thinking wage-earner who looks toward the 
future. 

V. The Wages of Adult Males. 

This stubborn minimum of subsistence or of ef- 
ficiency can be offset by income, and by income 
alone. How do incomes compare with the amounts 
necessary to efficiency or to subsistence? 

Though incomplete, the available figures indicate 
that, unemployment deducted, the adult male wage- 
earners in the manufacturing and transportation in- 
dustries in that part of the United States east of the 
Eockies and north of the Mason and Dixon Line re- 
ceive in annual earnings : 

One-tenth under $325. 
One-fifth under $400. 
One-half under $500. 
Three-fourths under $600. 
One-tenth over $800. 

From $650 to $1,000 will buy a decent standard of 
living for a family of five in the industrial cities and 
towns of the United States, east of the Mississippi 
Valley. In that same area, industries are paying to 
half of the adult males a yearly wage of less than 
$500 and to three-quarters a yearly wage of less 
than $600, while only ten per cent, receive over $800. 
Behold the temptation of the statistician to turn 
guesser, contrasting these two statements, asserting 
that from half to three-quarters of the jobs offered 



WAGE-EARNER AND STANDARDS 127 

to adult males by the leading industries of the North, 
East and Central portions of the United States do 
not permit the workers in them to provide a decent 
standard of living for a wife and three children 
under fourteen. Such a generalization, on the 
available facts, is statistically indefensible. Un- 
equipped with sujSficient data, the statistician must 
set the two conclusions side by side, and leave them 
there. Certain inferences are, however, strictly in 
order. 

A comparison of the wages paid at South Bethle- 
hem; in the Steel Industry; in the Packing Houses; 
or in any other industry which is known to be local- 
ized in certain centers, with the known cost of living 
in those centers, lends some color of truth to the 
idea that the wages paid to a large portion of adult 
workers in those localities will not permit the main- 
tenance of decent family standards. The Steel In- 
dustry in Pittsburgh, in South Bethlehem ; the Pack- 
ing Houses of Chicago; the Textile Mills of Fall 
Eiver; the Silk Mills of Paterson, pay to a great 
proportion of the adult male employes, wages which 
will not maintain a family on a decent or fair stand- 
ard. 

Note that inefficiency, drunkenness, and shiftless- 
ness are entirely eliminated from the discussion. 
Irrespective of them, there is a dej&nite minimum of 
decent living; and irrespective of them, American 
industries pay to adult male wage-earners wages 
which will not permit of decent living for a family 
of three children. The jobs are open — ^they are be- 



128 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

ing offered and taken — yes, competed for — ^by un- 
employed men while I write and while yon read 
these words. Above their boasted greatness, be- 
yond their vaunted prosperity, stands ttie incontro- 
vertible fact that in many instances American in- 
dustries do not pay enough wages to permit the 
great majority of male wage-earners employed by 
them, to bring np a family of three children in 
decency. The total family income may be adequate, 
but the wage of the man alone is not. 

;F7. Family Income and the Standard of Living. 

Thus in many cases, the wage of the father alone 
is wholly inadequate to furnish a decent living to a 
family of five. Even where wife and children join 
in wage-earning, the situation is not greatly im- 
proved, first, because from ^'four to five tenths of 
the industrial families of the United States are en- 
tirely supported by the earnings of the father- 
husband, '^^ second, because the small percentage of 
married women at work, the small wages paid to 
wage-earning women, and the difficulty which 
women with small children have in keeping regular 
work, all point to the conclusion that the possibilities 
of the wife supplementing the man's earnings in a 
young family are small indeed, being represented 
by perhaps one-tenth or one-twelfth of the total 
income, and that becanse the supplementary income 
provided by children nnder fourteen is extremely 

8 F. H. Streightoff, The Distribution of Incomes in the U, S., 
p, 133, Columbia University, New York, 1912. 



WAGE-EARNER AND STANDARDS 129 

small (owing to legislation and to the inefl&ciency of 
child labor) therefore even in the cases where the 
man is willing to turn his children into wage-earners 
before they have reached fourteen, even though his 
wife leave her baby in a day nursery or with a 
neighbor, the addition which is thereby made to 
family income is a slight one. 

The family wage^ — the wage of father, young 
mother and of children under fourteen cannot in the 
great majority of cases raise the wage secured by 
the man alone to a decency level for the family. 

Here is a considerable body of testimony in sup- 
port of the second hypothesis stated at the end of 
Chapter I — ^i. e. ^^that no matter how efficiently and 
earnestly he may strive,'^ many a sober, honest 
American workingman ^'will be unable to maintain 
a decent standard of living'^ for his wife and three 
young children. 

VII. The Problem of the Wage-Earner. 

Yonder man of twenty is asking whether he may 
marry on five hundred seventy-two dollars a year. 
The answer is clear-cut and decisive. If he is living 
in a town, he may do so, and maintain a fair stand- 
ard of living for two or three children. If he lives 
in a city he may marry, but each child which comes 
into the family will drag him down from a fair 
standard of living toward the margin of subsistence. 

Later this man wishes to know how he may main- 
tain his family of three children. So long as he 
remains an unskilled or a semi-skilled worker, he 



130 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

has one resource — the wife and children must go to 
work. Even then, if the industrial pace flags, if 
unemployment comes, if sickness and accidents 
make inroads on the income or force up expenditure, 
misery and want will crouch under the cupboard. 

VIII. The Need for Local Investigation. 

A discussion like the foregoing, if it does nothing 
more, emphasizes the imperativeness of additional 
information. If groups of people in the country are 
living below an efficiency standard, that fact should 
be known and the condition remedied. For the data 
regarding wages over a large area, dependence must 
of necessity be placed on the Federal Government, 
but that fact cannot relieve each local community of 
the responsibility of determining the relation which 
exists in that particular place between wages and 
standards of living. Each town, by adopting a list 
of things necessary to an efficiency standard of liv- 
ing (either that of the Federal study, that of the 
Chapin study, or a list locally compiled) by ascer- 
taining the cost of these things in the local markets, 
and by investigating local wages, may easily decide 
that these wages are sufficient, or are not sufficient 
to permit the maintenance of an efficiency standard. 

Nowhere in the problem need sentiment or 
^^ guess'' enter. The question is purely a question 
of fact. ^^Do the wages paid in your community 
permit the wage-earners to maintain a fair standard 
of living?" If the answer is ^^Yes," the benedic- 
tion of prosperity is already upon you ; if the answer 



WAGE-EARNER AND STANDARDS 131 

is *^No,'' and you would participate in the progress- 
ive movement of the age, see to it that measures 
are speedily adopted to insure the payment of living 
wages. 



APPENDIX 

Iitdividuaij Family Budgets 

II. A Minimum New York City Budget. 

The most human thing abont a study of stand- 
ards of living, in so far as such a study can be hu- 
man, is the income and expenditure of individual 
families. These records of the financing of an in- 
dividual family reach nearer to the heart of the 
problem than do abstract statements. Besides, in 
the last analysis, each family must do its own finan- 
cing, hence a statement about the doings of this 
family or that family is the truest kind of a truth 
about the standard of living. 

There are many ways in which budgets may be 
presented. Perhaps as pleasing a method as any 
other is that adopted by Mrs. More.^ While giv- 
ing the facts in great detail, she weaves into them 
a sufficient web of story to make her work distinctly 
readable. 

II. A Minimum New York City Budget. 

One of Mrs. More's families, ^^ Number 51,'^ 
serves as an excellent example of a family living on 

iL. B. More, Wage-Earners' Budgets, Henry Holt & Co., New 
York, 1907. 

133 



134 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNEE'S FAMILY 

the minimum standard. As there were but two 
children in this family, its expenses are slightly less 
heavy than those of the ^^ normal'' family hereto- 
fore considered. 

This household consists of father and mother, both 
born in Ireland, and two boys, eight and nine years 
of age. The man is a steady, temperate, unskilled 
laborer. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. E. has known any 
higher plane of living than their present surround- 
ings ; both are uneducated, but the woman especially 
possesses considerable native thrift and intelligence. 
This family is representative of the average family 
of this size on a fairly steady income of $12 a week, 
with no drink, sickness, or unusual conditions to 
make it abnormal. The man was out of work six 
weeks in the year, but that was not unusual. The 
woman is neat, honest, and reliable, and tries hard 
'^to get ahead.'' Mr. E. was greatly interested in 
the investigation, which he said would ^^prove it is 
impossible to get ahead on wages of $12 a weef 
For three months he had night work as stableman 
at $13 a week. The family has never been depend- 
ent, but while the man was out of work a sister gave 
them $25 as a present, and they were obliged to draw 
$10 from the little which they had saved in the bank. 
The total income for the year was : 

Mr. R. 33 weeks at $12 ) ^-^^ qq 

Mr. R. 13 weeks at 13 ) ^ * 

Drew from bank 10.00 

Gift from sister 25.00 

Total $600.00 



APPENDIX 135 

The estimated expenditures were as follows: 

Rent: 2 mos. at $10; 7 mos. at $12; 3 mos. at $11. .$137.00 

Food, from $4 to $7 a week 277.00 

Drink (pint of beer at supper daily) 36.40 

Clothing 40.00 

Light and fuel 52.00 

Insurance from 50 to 75 cents a week 29.25 

Papers, 1 1 cents a week 5.72 

Church, 35 cents a week (for 50 weeks) 17.50 

Man's spending-money 25.00 

Sundries 2.03 

Total $622.50 

Deficit $ 22.50 

This deficit consisted of bills owing to the butcher 
and grocer amoruting to $10, back insurance pay- 
ments equal to $2.50, and clothing bought ^^on time'' 
on which $10 was still unpaid. The rent varied be- 
cause the family had moved twice in the year, look- 
ing for cheaper rent. They were never dispos- 
sessed, and always paid their rent in full before 
leaving. They have always lived in this neighbor- 
hood. The last rooms, for which they paid $10 a 
month rent, were three dark, small rooms. The 
light of the ^^ parlor'' at the back of the tenement 
was almost shut off by a large factory built close to 
it. The windows in the kitchen and bedroom 
opened on an air-shaft. The rooms, however, were 
very neat, lace-curtains at the windows, plush fur- 
niture, pictures of the family, carpet on the floor, 
and all the bric-a-brac usual in homes of this class. 
There was a white iron bed in the bedroom, with the 
customary folding-bed for the children. 

The expenditure for food varied greatly. A 
budget kept for a week showed $7 spent for food, 



136 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNEE'S FAMILY 

but Mrs. E. said they could only spend that much 
when the man was working steadily or when there 
was no rent to pay. The weeks in which semi- 
monthly payments of rent were made, the food al- 
lowance was cut down to about $4 a week. During 
the six weeks the man was not working they did 
not spend more than $4.50 a week for food. This 
is an illustration of a very common condition among 
wage-earners and is due to the fact that on the pre- 
vailing rate of unskilled wages, it is difficult if not 
impossible for a family to prepare for such emer- 
gencies. Making these allowances, Mrs. R. esti- 
mated that $277 had been spent for food in the 
year, and that the average per week would be about 
$5.23. On the whole, the food was adequate and 
wholesome, and the entire family appeared to be 
in good condition. They had no illness during the 
year. Mrs. E. could not remember that she had 
spent a cent for medicine, not even the usual ex- 
penditure in these families for magnesia, salts, and 
cough mixtures. 

The standard of dress is classed as * ^medium.'' 
They had few clothes, but took good care of them. 
The father had plain working-clothes, the mother 
always wore wrappers at home, and only had one 
street dress, as she never went anywhere except to 
church. The boys were neat and clean. Mrs. E. 
bought clothing '^on time" — she was ashamed of it, 
but said the boys could not have new suits for Easter 
unless she did. She itemized the expenditures for 
clothing for the year as follows : 



APPENDIX 137 

Man, 1 pair shoes $ 2.00 

Woman, 1 pair shoes 1.25 

Two boys, 2 suits 7.00 

2 overcoats 1 1.00 

4 pairs shoes at 75 cts.; 4 pairs at 69 cts 5.76 

Mending shoes 2.80 

2 pairs pants, $1.00; 4 sets underwear, $1.60 2.60 

4 shirt-waists; 2 at 50 cts., and 2 at 30 cts 1.60 

4 caps 70 

Miscellaneous 5.29 

Total $40.00 

Mrs. E. cannot sew, and bnys all their clothes 
ready-made of a cheap qnality, but the little boys 
are not hard on their clothes. Her sister knits 
stockings for the entire family. 

The expenditure for coal and gas and oil was 
rather high, owing to the dark rooms. Coal was 
bought by the bushel, and the man brought home 
wood free for kindling. Gas was burned in two 
places where they lived, and the gas-bills for nine 
months amounted to $11.20. In all, coal cost $37.75 
(at 25 cents a bushel), and oil for three months about 
$3.05— total $52. 

The family did not spend one cent for recreation, 
except what the father had out of his ^ ^spending- 
money. '^ This was very little, for while he was 
earning $12 a week his wife gave him not more than 
40 cents a week and often only 25 cents (15 cents 
for tobacco and 10 cents for a shave), but when he 
earned $13 a week (for 3 months) he kept out a 
dollar a week for ^^spending-money.^' His allow- 
ance for the entire year would not exceed $25. He 
gave all the rest to Mrs, E, who said he was a ** model 



138 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

husband.'^ They are very religious and go to the 
Catholic Church every Sunday, only missing two 
Sundays in the year. They pay 10 cents each for 
a seat, put 10 cents in the collection, and give the 
boys each 2 or 3 pennies for the collection, making a 
total of 35 cents a Sunday. 

They were all insured for 50 cents a week, 15 cents 
for the man, 15 cents for the woman, and 10 cents 
each for the boys, until the man's wages were raised 
to $13, when his wife raised his insurance policy and 
paid 40 cents a week for him. This extra amount 
was more than they could afford to pay, for in those 
13 weeks they dropped behind $2.50 on the insurance 
payments. 

The only reading is the penny papers. The boys 
are sent to the parochial school, and the parents are 
very ambitious for them. Unless sickness or un- 
employment comes, this family will be able to make 
up the deficit of $22.50 on the man's wages of $13 
a week, but it is very evident from a study of these 
expenditures that it will be impossible to save any 
considerable sum for the future.^ 

A scrutiny of these expenditures shows the food 
to be slightly more than the 22 cents per man, per 
day, allowed by Chapin, while the expenditure for 
clothing is abnormally low — the entire expenditure 
for man and wife being only $3.25. From the de- 
scription, the housing was inadequate — none of their 
rooms being ^4ight." The failure to spend ^^one 

2L. B. More, Wage-Earners' Budgets, pp. 163-167, Ilenry Holt & 
Co., New York, 1907. 



APPENDIX 139 

cent for recreation" is one of the most noticeable 
things about the budget. 

III. The Budget of a Typical American Family. 

By way of contrast with this family which was 
securing little more than a subsistence, Mrs. More 
analyzes the expenditures of a family which she 
describes as typically American. This family was 
receiving an income of $850 — sufficient to provide 
a fair standard of living. 

Mr. and Mrs. B. have been married five years 
and have two children, aged 4 years and 1 year. 
The man was born in New York, his wife in Ire- 
land, but she was brought to this country when quite 
a little girl. The only source of income is from Mr. 
B., who is a draftsman in an architect's office and 
earns $15 a week. He has been with the same firm 
for seven years and has the opportunity to make a 
few dollars extra in drawing up plans and specifi- 
cations. This amounted to about $70 for the year, 
making the total income $850, The young man is 
a bright, capable fellow who is likely to succeed. He 
never goes out evenings except with his wife, and 
usually brings home work from the office to do at 
night. Their home consists of three rooms in the 
^^old law tenement,'' for which they pay $13 a 
month. The sanitary conditions are very bad, the 
bedroom is perfectly dark, with only a small win- 
dow about two feet square opening into the hall. 
The kitchen is small, and has a small window open- 
ing on an air-shaft. The parlor has two large win- 



140 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

dows, but they are close to a factory in the rear. 
The rooms are very well furnished. The furniture 
cost over $200, bought ^^on time,'' when they were 
married. It was paid for in two years. 

The rooms are never in order, piles of clean 
clothes are everywhere, usually unwashed dishes are 
on the table, and everything is very untidy, but not 
dirty. Mrs. B. is pretty, bright, and ambitious, but 
entirely untrained and without system in her work. 
She is a devoted wife and mother. Their expenditure 
for recreation was $50, and was most carefully es- 
timated. They went regularly once a week to the 
theater all winter. This cost about $16. They also 
went to six or seven balls (50 cents), as Mrs. B. is 
very fond of dancing. In the summer they take the 
children several times a week on trolley-rides in the 
evening, besides trips to Coney Island and Fort 
Greorge. Last summer they spent two weeks at Far 
Eockaway, where they paid $9 for two furnished 
rooms and boarded themselves. The man belongs to 
no club or lodge, but intends joining the Y. M. C. A. 
on 23rd Street for gymnasium privileges, and will 
get his lunch there. Mr. B. gives his wife his en- 
tire earnings every week, including what he makes 
overtime, and she gives him $1 for lunch and $1 for 
spending-money. He spent this all in ways his wife 
knew of, and so it has been divided into different 
expenditures — drink, books, papers, etc. 

The total expenditures for the year, with an in- 
come of $850, were as follows : 



APPENDIX 141 

Food, including lunch-money, $7 a week $364.00 

Rent, $13 a month 156.00 

Clothing 65.00 

Light and fuel 52.00 

Insurance 62.00 

Recreation 50.00 

Books and papers 18.00 

Drink, 30 cents a week, not more than 20.00 

Medical attendance, including dentist, $30 45.00 

Sundries, (tobacco, shaving, etc.) 10.00 

Total $843.00 

Surplus , 7.00 

$850.00 

Mr^. B. had saved $37, but $30 had to be drawn 
out of the bank for the dentist's bill, so that only 
$7 was saved at the end of the year. They are anx- 
ious to save, but at the same time have a high stand- 
ard and wish to live well, and so have only $47 in 
the savings-bank. They live very comfortably and 
have many pleasures in life. Mrs. B. kept a budget 
of her household expenses for four weeks. 

The total expenses for each week were as follows 
(income being $15 a week) : 

First week $11.98 

Second week 9.70 

Third week 10.30 

Fourth week 9.40 

Total $41.38 

Average per week $10.35 

This includes rent, food, light and fuel, sundries, 
and nothing else, not even Mr. B's allowance for 
lunches and spending-money. The food expense 
averaged $6 a week, with lunch-money it was $7 and 
they lived extremely well for a family of four. The 



142 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

expenditures for meat was very high, almost one- 
third of the total amount. They had plenty of vege- 
tables, and more fruit and pastry than most families 
of their class. A sample week's expenditure for 
food is as follows : 

Saturday evening, Jan. 23rd: 1 lb. butter, .29; 1 lb. coffee, .25; 
3J lbs. sugar, .18; ^ lb. tea, .25; 1 qt. potatoes, .10, 1 loaf 
bread, .05; vegetables, .12; meat, .75; cake, .20; fruit, .10; 
1 qt. milk, .05; oatmeal, .10; total $2.44 

Sunday, Jan. 24th: Bread, .05; milk, ,05; biscuits, .10 20 

Monday, Jan. 25tb: Milk, .05; rolls, .05; jam, .10; bread, .05. . .25 

Tuesday, Jan. 26: Milk, .05; bread, .05; meat, .25; vegetables, 

15; pie, 10 60 

Wednesday, Jan. 27: Bread, .05; milk, .05; meat, .25; veg- 
etables, .18; rolls, .05; 1 lb. butter, .29 87 

Thursday, Jan. 28th: Milk, .05; bread, .10; meat, .25; veg- 
etables, .18 ; rolls, .05 58 

Friday, Jan. 29th: Milk, .05; bread, .10; fish, .22; 4 eggs, .14; 

vegetables, .15 66 

Saturday morning, Jan. 30th: Milk, .05; bread, .05; rolls, .05; 

meat, .30 45 

Mr. B. lunch-money for week 1.00 

Total for food $7.05 

The expenditures for light and fuel are higher 
than the average. Gas was burned extravagantly, 
and the bills averaged $2.20 a month for six months 
in winter, and $1 a month in summer, when it was 
used for cooking. It cost approximately $19.10 a 
year, coal $29, wood for kindling at 2 cents a bundle 
about $4.50. Coal was bought by the 100-lb. bag at 
40 cents a bag. 

There were no expenditures for union, church, 
gifts or loans, furniture, or carfares. The father 
and mother were well-dressed, but the children were 
too small to need much. Mrs. B. is unable to sew 



APPENDIX 143 

and spends more than is necessary, but slie bnys 
clotlies of good quality and in good taste. Mr. B. is 
fond of reading the daily papers and the cheaper 
magazines, and spends 30 cents to 35 cents a week 
for them. The insurance is high because they are 
also paying the insurance for the man's mother — 50 
cents a week. Mr. B.'s insurance is 30 cents a week, 
Mrs. B.'s 20 cents, and 20 cents for the children — 
total $1.20 a week or $62.40 a year. 

The standard of living of this family may be called 
high, and it is typical of that of many young couples 
of this class — extravagant in some ways and provi- 
dent in others, with a fair degree of comfort and 
prosperity, but very little provision made for the 
future.^ 

The really extravagant thing about this budget 
is the expenditure for food, amounting to about 40 
cents per man, per day. None of the other expendi- 
tures, with the possible exception of ^^ recreation'' 
and ^^ dentist," seem excessive. The insurance pay- 
ments for the grandmother are included, raising the 
insurance item by $26. The rent expenditure seems 
small in view of Mrs. More's description of the in- 
adequate accommodations secured. 

IV. Mill Town Budgets. 

Less rhetorical, but no less interesting, are the 
budgets of typical mill families, published in volume 
16 of the recent Federal investigation of the work of 
Woman and Child Wage-Earners. This study 

3 Supra, pp. 167-171. 



144 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

covered two districts — one the cotton mill towns of 
Georgia, the other Fall Eiver, Massachusetts. Al- 
though these families differed widely as regards na- 
tionality, family size and family status, five budgets, ^ 
picked because the families were near the ^^ normal'' 
family (a man, wife and three children under four- 
teen) will give an excellent idea of the character of 
the budgets. 

Family No. 4. 

This family consists of the father, mother and 
three children. Their ages, occupations, and earn- 
ings are shown in the following table : 

Membership and Income of Family No. 4, 1908. 

Yearly Paid to 

earnings. family. 

Husband, age 50, elevator man $292.45 $292.45 

Wife, age 38, housekeeper 

First child, age 15, doffer in cotton mill (male) .. 254.60 254.60 

Second child, age 14, spinner (female) 283.15 283.15 

Third child, age 7, at school (female) 

Total $830.20 $830.20 

Three of the five members of the family are wage- 
earners. It would be supposed that they could earn 
sufficient to meet the needs of the family so that they 
could live comfortably. In fact, their total earn- 
ings are considerably above the sum apparently 
necessary for the maintenance of a fair standard 
of living. Yet at the end of the year the family 
was $50.98 in debt. This was due to misfortune 
rather than extravagance. The father was injured 
in the mill twice during the year and lost six weeks. 



APPENDIX 145 

The mother is ill with lung trouble. The boy has 
tuberculosis, and the 14-year-old girl is very frail 
and is constantly taking patent medicines. During 
the year they spent $108.25 on medicines and doc- 
tor's bills. The year before the 14-year-old girl, 
whose earnings were a large share of the family in- 
come, lost 24 weeks because of illness. Because of 
this the family was at the beginning of the year 
heavily in debt. A part of the year's earnings went 
to pay off this indebtedness. The indebtedness at 
the end of the year was $15 for furniture and $33.98 
for clothing, bought an the installment plan, and $2 
on doctor's bills. 

The family occupies a three-room house and pays 
$5.50 per month rent. The house is very simply 
furnished. The front room is used as a sitting- 
room. The floor is covered with straw matting. 
The walls are adorned with portraits of Mormon 
elders, the family professing the Mormon faith. 
The one bedroom contains two beds in which the five 
members of the f airily sleep. 

The amusements of the family are very simple. 
The father gets his only pleasure out of reading the 
daily paper and imparting the information he has 
gleaned to his wife, who cannot read. The expendi- 
tures show a charge for amusements, but this was, 
in fact, carfare spent in going to the city. The 
children visit with the neighbors Saturday after- 
noon and Sunday. The whole family are very de- 
vout. From the menu it can be seen they had no 
breakfast and dinner on Sunday, which chanced to 



146 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 



be the first Sunday of the month. The mother ex- 
plained it was the custom of the Mormons to fast 
on that day and to give to the church the sum that 
would have been spent for food. 

The following table shows the expenditures of 
the family for the year: 

Expenditures of Family No. 4, 1908, 



Item. Amount. 

Food $289.75 

Rent 66.00 

Clothing ( including debt 

of $33.98 152.32 

Fuel (coal, $17.50) 41.50 

Light 7.80 

Drinks 14.95 

Medicine 62.25 

Doctor's bills ( including 

debt of $2) 48.00 



Item. Amount. 

Insurance $ 18.20 

School books 1.60 

Newspapers 6.24 

Church contributions .... 1.80 

Amusements 15.60 

Sundries 9.75 

Furniture 39.00 



Totals $774.76 



The following lists show the clothing purchased 
and the amounts paid for the different members of 
the family: 

Expenditures of Family No. 4, for clothing, 1908. 
Father, i 

Suit 1, cost $ 

Suit 1, 

Trousers 2, 

Shirts, white 1, 

Shirts, colored 4, 

Overalls 2, 

Underwear, shirts * 2, 

Underwear, drawers 2, 

Shoes t 2, 

Hat 1, 

Cap 

Collars 6, 

Neckties 1^ 

4 Not including debt of $15 for furniture purchased during the 
year and $75 paid in settlement of debt for preceding year. 
* Made by mother, 
f Including $1.20 for half-soling 2 prs. 



her, age 50. 


Son 


, age 15. 


ost$ 20.00 


l,cost$ 6.00 


" .... 


1, ' 


' 5.98 


3.00 


6, ' 


3.00 


1.00 


2, ' 


1.00 


2.00 


4, ' 


2.00 


1.00 


2, ' 


1.00 


1.00 


2, ' 


.50 


1.00 


2, ' 


.30 


8.20 


6, ' 


9.00 


1.98 


2, ' 


2.15 




4, ' 


1.00 


.60 


4, ' 


.40 


.25 


2, ' 


.50 



APPENDIX 147 

Father, age 50. Son, age 15. 

Suspenders 1, cost $ .25 1, cost $ .25 

Handkerchiefs " .25 " .30 

Stockings 52, " 5.20 30, " 4.50 



Total $45.73 $37.88 

Mother, age 38. 

2 waists, calico, homemade, 6 yds. at .07 ; trimmings, .05 .... $ 0.47 

1 skirt, ready-made 8.98 

5 aprons, gingham, homemade, 15 yds. at .OSJ 1.25 

1 dress, calico, homemade, 10 yds. at .07; trimmings, .05 75 

2 winter underwear, cotton 50 

1 hat, felt 1.98 

1 hat, straw 1.00 

10 stockings, cotton 1.50 

1 pr. shoes 2.00 



Total $18.43 

Daughter, age 14 

1 suit, serge, ready-made $ 9.98 

2 waists, lawn, homemade, 6 yds. at .12J; trimming, .25 1.00 

2 waists, gingham, homemade, 6 yds. at .19; trimming, .05 65 

1 skirt, cotton, homemade, 5 yds. at .15; trimming, .05 80 

1 dress, flannelette, homemade, 8 yds. at .15; trimming, .10.. 1.30 
6 dresses, calico, at .07; 48 yds. homemade, trimming, .30.... 3.66 

1 dress, lawn, homemade, 8 yds. at .10; trimming, .35 1.15 

2 aprons, gingham, homemade, 6 yds. at .08^ 50 

2 petticoats, cotton, homemade, 8 yds. at .08^; trimming, .05. . .72 
4 drawers, canton flannel, homemade, 6 yds. at .10; trimming, 

.05 65 

2 winter underwear, cotton, ready-made 50 

1 hat, felt 1.00 

1 hat, straw 1.25 

52 stockings 5.20 

6 shoes (including $1.80 for half soles) 10.80 

Total $39.16 

Daughter, age 7. 

6 dresses, (4J yds. each) calico, homemade, 27 yds. at .07; trim- 
ming .20 $ 2.09 

1 dress, flannelette, homemade, 4 yds. at .12J; trimming, .05 . . .55 

2 petticoats, cotton, homemade, 6 yds. at .08; trimming, .05.. .53 

1 petticoat, flannel, homemade, 4 yds. at .25 1.00 

2 drawers, canton flannel, homemade, 2 yds. at .10 .20 

1 hat, felt i .50 

1 hat, straw .j ,60 



148 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

20 stockings $ 2.00 

3 shoes 3.75 

Total $11.12 

Following is the menu for the week ending Jan- 
uary 3. 1909:; 

Monday. 
Breakfast: .Fried bacon, biscuit, sirup, Postum, oatmeal. 
Dinner:^ Collards and peas with bacon, corn bread, Postum. 
Supper: J^i^d bacon, biscuit, sirup, Postum. 

Tuesday. 
BreaTcfasf: Fried pork, biscuit, sirup, Postum. 
Dinner:^ Fried bacon, biscuit, sirup, Postum. 
Supper: Fried meat, biscuit, sirup, Postum. 

Wednesday. 
Breakfast: Biscuit, sirup, grits, Postum. 

Dinner: Turnip greens, Irish potatoes, corn bread, Postum. 

Supper: Warmed over greens and corn bread, Postum. 

Thursday. 
Breakfast : Grits, biscuit, sirup, Postum. 

Dinner : Collards, baked sweet potatoes, corn bread, Irish potatoes. 

Supper: Cold collards, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, biscuit. 

Friday. 
Breakfast : Grits, butter, biscuit, fried bacon, Postum. 
Dinner: Stewed beef, macaroni, Irish potatoes, corn bread. 

Supper: Cold stewed beef and Irish potatoes, biscuit. 

Saturday. 
Breakfast: Grits, biscuit, sirup, Postum. 
Dinner: Sardines (5-cent box), light bread. 

Supper: Fried ham, biscuit, Postum. 

Sunday. 
"No hreakfast or dinner. Morman fast day first Sunday in each month. 
Supper: Fried pork, biscuit, sirup. 



The store account shows a total expenditure 
for the four weeks of $21.65. Of this, $19.15 was 
spent for food. The family no longer takes milk from 
the milkman, and the grocery bill has been cut down 



APPENDIX 149 

since the new clotlies were purchased. The average 
value of food consumed per week per man unit for 
the year covered was $1.42. 

Family No. 19 

This family consists of the father, the mother, and 
four children too young to work in the mill. The 
following shows the age, occupation, and earnings of 
the different members of the family: 

Memlership and income of Family No, 19, 1908-9. 

Yearly Paid to 

earnings. family. 

Husband, age 55, sweeper $258.70 $258.70 

Wife, age 30, housekeeper 

First child, age 11, at home (female) 

Second child, age 8, at home (male) 

Third child, age 4, at home ( female ) 

Fourth child, age 1, at home (female) 

Boarders and lodgers: Sister-in-law (over 21) 
sister-in-law's child (3) (for board and lodg- 
ing) 143.00 

Total $258.70 $401.70 

The clothing expenditures of this family were so 
similar to those of the preceding one (No, 4) that 
they are omitted. 

The family had a small garden, and consumed 
vegetables raised in it of an estimated value of $4. 

They occupy a four-room house and pay $2.60 a 
month rent. The house is well taken care of, ex- 
ceedingly neat, and gives evidence of good manage- 
ment on the part of the housewife. The furniture 
consists of beds and bedding, a sewing machine, 
dresser, side table, lamps, chairs, one wicker rocking 



150 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNEE'S FAMILY 

* 

chair, a cradle, a four hole kitchen stove, and the 
front window has flowered muslin curtains. 

The health of the family seems to be good except 
that of the mother who appears old and worn out. 
She gave her age as 30, but she appears to be at 
least 50. Two of the children had measles during 
the year and the husband lost about two weeks from 
malarial fever. 

The family has had a very hard time to get along. 
During the husband's illness they were compelled 
to borrow money from the superintendent of the 
mill. The amount could not be learned. It is being 
repaid by taking $1 per week out of the husband's 
earnings, which are $5.10 per week. 

The cost of living of the family exceeds their in- 
come by $47.73. The mother said that during the 
first years of their married life, when her husband 
earned only $4.75 per week and ^^ rations" were low 
they saved enough money to buy all of the furniture 
they now possess. When wages went up, however, 
*^ rations" went up so much more that they could 
not live nearly so well as they could at first. 

The following shows the annual expenditures: 

Expenditures of Family No, 19, 1908, 

Item. Amount. Item. Amount. 

Food (including debt of Insurance $23.40 

$11.29) $217.39 Church contributions ... 2.00 

Rent 29.20 Washing 1.20 

Clothing 90.75 Sundries 6.93 

Fuel 34.25 Moving 5.00 

Light 11.44 Incidentals 1.60 

Tobacco 4.00 Two pigs 7.00 

Medicine 4.00 

Doctor's bill (debt) 4.00 Total s $449.43 

5 In addition to the indebtedness for food and for doctor this total 



APPENDIX 151 

In this family the father only is at work, with 
children too young to work. It is easily seen that 
if the father ^s earnings were not supplemented by 
keeping boarders it would be impossible for the fam- 
ily to live. There are four children between the 
ages of 1 and 11. 

Family No. 101. 

This family is French Canadian, though the 
father was born in this country. The membership 
and the age, occupation, and earnings of each mem- 
ber are shown by the following table : 

Membership and income of Family No. 101, 1908-9, 

Yearly Paid to 

earnings. family. 

Husband, age 39, weaver $ 404.32 $ 404.32 

Wife, age 38, weaver 294.44 294.44 

First child, age 16, weaver (male) 374.69 374.69 

Second child, age 13, at school (female) 

Third child, age 10, at school (female) 

Fourth child, age 7, at school ( male ) 

Total $1,073.45 $1,073.45 

In this family the mother works in the mill. The 
girls, 13 and 10 years old, take care of their younger 
brother and do a large part of the housework. The 
mother does not work regularly, however, and when 
it is necessary for her to stay at home, as, for in- 
stance, to make the children's clothing, she does so. 
But she earned nearly $300 during the past year. 
The family keeps about 15 hens, which afford an 
additional income estimated at $10. 

shows an excess of expenditures over income of $32.44. The family 
borrowed money to meet this deficit. 



152 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

The family has five rooms in a tenement in which 
six families live. Three of the rooms are used for 
sleeping rooms, one for the kitchen, and one for the 
parlor. The honse is shabbily furnished, but every- 
thing appears to be clean. A faded and worn car- 
pet is on the floor of the front room, which also 
contains a bnrean, a chiffonier, and a writing desk. 
The kitchen is clean and has a carpet and oilcloth 
on the floor. The floors of the bedroom are bare. 

There was no sickness in the family during the 
year. The oldest boy is given 50 cents a week 
spending money. He goes to the theater or moving- 
picture shows, and sometimes takes car rides. The 
father spends about 25 cents a week in this manner. 

The annual expenditures of the family are shown 
in the following table : 

Expenditures of Family No, 101, 1908-9. 

Item. Amount. Item. Amount. 

Food $390.00 Churcli contributions . . .$ 31.00 

Rent 91.00 Amusements 39.00 

Clothing 139.07 Ice 11.20 

Fuel 35.87 Laundry 39.00 

Light 10.92 Barbering 6.7*5 

Tobacco 5.20 Sundries 9.62 

Drinks 13.00 Poll tax 2.00 

Medicine 1.00 

Insurance 26.00 Total $865.71 

Newspapers 15.08 

This is a frugal and thrifty family. The mother 
works in the mill, making some of her children's 
clothing at night and doing a part of the housework 
before she goes to work in the morning. That the 
family is able to save money is due to her economy. 
The children have almost no clothes and she herself 



APPENDIX 153 

had had nothing but one calico wrapper: during the 
year. They have good food to eat. The mother, 
father, and eldest boy take their lunches with them 
to the mill. This accounts in some part for the 
rather unusual expense for fruit found in their 
grocery account. 

The following table shows the clothing purchased 
for the different members of the family : 

Expenditures of Family ^o. 101 for clothing, 1908-9, 
Father, age 39. 

Suit 1, cost, $12.50 

Overcoat 

Trousers, ( made by 

mother) 

Shirts, white 1, 

Shirts, colored (made 

by mother ) 4, 

Overalls 2, 

Underwear, shirts .... 2, 
Underwear, drawers 

(made by mother) 

Shoes 

Hat 1, 

Cap 1, 

Collars 

Neckties 

Suspenders 

Handkerchiefs 

Socks 4, 



age 39. 


Son,; 


age 16. 


Son, 


age 7. 


,$12.50 


1, 


cost, $15.00 


l,cost,$ 4.00 










1, 


(( 


3.00 




1, 


tc 


4.50 


6, 


({ 


3.00 


.50 


2, 


ti 


1.00 








2.00 


4, 


<l 


2.00 


8, 


tc 


1.60 


1.00 


2, 


a 


1.00 








2.50 


2, 


it 


1.00 


.2, 


tt 


.50 




2, 


a 


1.00 


2, 


if 


.20 




4, 


a 


11.00 


10, 


tt 


12.50 


1.00 


1, 


(t 


2.00 










2, 


ic 


1.00 


1. 


tt 


.25 




5, 


(C 


.50 










10, 


(( 


2.50 








.50 


2, 

6, 


(( 


1.00 
.60 








1.00 


12, 


(( 


3.00 


12, 


tc 


3.00 



Total $21.00 $47.10 $28.05 

Mother, age 38. 
^^ 1 dress, calico, home-made, 12 yds. at .07, trimmings, .05 $0.89 

Total $0.89 

Daughter, age 13. 

1 coat, cloth $ 2.00 

5 dresses, gingham, home-made, 30 yds. at .12J; trimmings, .50 4.25 

2 petticoats, white cotton, home-made, 8 yds. at .10 80 

2 winter underwear, cotton 50 

1 hat (old one trimmed over) 1.00 



154 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNEE'S FAMILY 

1 hat (old one trimmed over) $ 1.25 

12 stockings 3.00 

4 shoes (father mends shoes) 5.00 



Total $17.80 

Daughter, age 10. 

1 coat, cloth $ 2.00 

5 dresses, gingham, home-made, 25 yds. at .12J; trimmings, .50 3.63 

2 petticoats, white cotton, home-made, 8 yds. at .10 80 

2 drawers, Avhite cotton, 3 yds. at .10 30 

2 winter underwear, cotton 50 

1 hat, straw 4.00 

1 hat (old one trimmed over) 1.25 

12 stockings 3.00 

7 shoes 8.75 

Total $24.23 

Store account of Family No, 101 for six weeks in April and May, 1908. 

Apr. 7 — Soda, .10, bread, .15, corn, .10, oranges, .10, tobacco, .10, 
sugar, .25, beef, .40, shoulder, .51, rice, .20, soap, 
.05, starch, .10, soap, .25, bananas, .18, potatoes, 
1.10, peas, .12, soda, .10, celery, .10, ribs, .42, beef, 

.51, sugar, .25, soda, .10 $ 5.19 

12— Beef 36 

13— Beef 21 

14 — Steak, .19, ribs, .14, soap, .05, cakes, .05, beans, .12, 
beans, .12, beans, .09, soda, .10, cheese, .20, beef, 

19, beef .218 1.53 

17 — Shoulder, .62, beef, .47, oranges, .25, celery, .10, cook- 
ies, .10, cookies, .15, cookies, .10, tea, .05 1.84 

20 — Bread, .05, sausage, .13, beef, .31, steak, .20, bananas, 
.10, oranges, .25, cookies, .10, beans, .12, cakes, 

.05, beef, .22 1.53 

21— Bread 05 

22— Ham, .14, soda, .10, beef, .12, beans, .12 48 

23— Pork, .06, brisket, .28, shoulder, .61, beef, .43, or- 
anges, .27, cookies, .10, lard, .10, sugar, .25.... 2.10 
26 — Potatoes, .65, beef, .19, bananas, .12, pork, .06, ba- 
nanas, .10 1.12 

27— Beef, .23, ribs, .16, beans, .12 51 

28— Beef, .26, ribs, .16 40 

29 — Oranges, .08, beans, .12, bananas, .21, meat, .30, shoul- 
der, .65, beef, .38, cakes, .10, cakes, .10, tobacco, 
.10 2.04 



APPENDIX 155 

May 1 — Shoulder, .25, rice, .05, beans, .12, cakes, .16, steak, 
.16, beef, .23, steak, .10, beef, .19, ribs, .15, ba- 
nanas, .12, cakes, .15, beef, .10 $ 1.78 

6 — Bananas, .12, cream puff, .05, beans, .12, shoulder, .61, 
beef, .34, potatoes, .65, shoulder, .20, soap, .25, 
nuts, .05, sugar, .25, water cress, .10, oranges, .24, 

tobacco, .10, sugar, .25, cookies, .10 3.63 

12— Fish .25 

14 — Water cress . .05 

15 — Shoulder, .56, sugar, .25, beans, .12, matches, .10, nuts, 
.05, pepper, .10, eclairs, .10, beef, .27, ribs, .17, 
beans, .12, shoulder, .25, beef, .12, bananas, .12, 

steak, .20, sugar, .25, lard, .28 3.06 

20— Steak, .12, dates, .12, yeast, .12 36 

21 — Pork, .06, bananas, .10, meat, .45, lard, .28, shoulder, 
.67, beef, .41, tobacco .06, sugar, .25, potatoes, .58, 
beef, .26, tomatoes, .10, vermicelli, .10, straw- 
berries, .24 3.56 

26— Ehubarb, .10, tobacco, .06 16 

Total $19.92 

In addition to the amonnt shown in the store ac- 
count the family expended $3.44 per week elsewhere 
for food, as follows: Coffee, $0.25; tea, $0.25; bnt- 
ter, $0.90; flonr, $0.50; bread, $1.05, and milk, $0.49. 
There was also an expenditure of $11.20 per year 
for ice. The averag-e value of food consumed per 
week per man unit for the year covered was 
$1.71. 

Family No. 103 

This family is Portuguese. They came from the 
Azores and had been in this country 7 years. The 
children can speak English but the parents cannot. 
The family consists of the father, mother, and 4 
children. The table following shows the age, occu- 
pation, and earnings oT the different members. 



156 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Membership and income of Family No, 103, 1908-9. 

Yearly Paid to 

earnings. family. 

Father, age 44, sweeper $203.22 $203.22 

Mother, age 36, housekeeper 

First child, age 19, doffer (male) 240.33 240.33 

Second child, age 17, spinner (female) 285.60 285.60 

Third child, age 11, at school (male) 

Fourth child, age 3, at home (female) 



Total $829.15 $829.15 

The father ^s earnings are estimated because his 
name could not be identified on the pay roll of the 
company for which he worked. 

They live on the first floor of a tenement in which 
there are 8 families. They occupy four rooms, one 
of which is nsed for kitchen, dining-room, and sit- 
ting-room. The other three are used for sleeping 
rooms. The kitchen stove furnishes the heat for 
all the rooms in the winter. The house is very dirty 
and is poorly taken care of. The furnishings con- 
sist of absolute necessities only, such as table, 
chairs, stove, and beds. 

The mother and younger children are poorly 
clothed and very dirty. The mother had typhoid 
fever during the year and a baby died of pneumonia. 
The health of the other members of the family was 
good. 

The diversions of the family are simple — street- 
car rides and moving-picture shows occasionally for 
the older members, and church. 

The annual expenditures are as follows : 



APPENDIX 157 

Expenditures of Family No. lOS, 1908-9. 

Item. Amount. Item. Amount. 

Food $383.24 Newspapers, etc .$ 1.00 

Rent 84.00 Church contributions 31.20 

Clothing 77.84 Amusements 5.00 

Fuel 28.00 Funeral expenses 35.00 

Light 7.28 Sundries 7.80 

Tobacco 5.20 Poll tax 2.00 

Drinks 10.00 

Medicine 7.00 Total $714.56 

Doctor's bills 30.00 

The difference between the expenses for the year 
and the income shows that there may have been 
some savings. The mother said, however, that they 
had not saved any money. It may be that she was 
not telling the truth, though the grocery book showed 
that they were in debt to the store $25.81. 

The family lived very poorly and it would seem 
that they spent as little money as they could. The 
underclothing for most of the children and nearly 
all of the clothes for the youngest child are made 
by the mother from the flour sacks in which she 
buys her flour. 

Ewpenditures of Family No. 103 for clothing, 1908-9. 

Father, age 44. Son, age 19. Son, age 11. 

Suit 1, cost $ 7.00 1, cost $ 6.00 

Trousers 3, " 3.00 

Shirts, white 1, " .50 

Shirts, colored 3, cost $ 0.45 3, " .75 

Overalls 3, " 1.00 2, " 1.00 2, " .50 

Underwear, shirts ..2, " .50 2, " .60 2, " .60 

Underwear, drawers. 2, " .75 (2) (2) 

Shoes 1, " 1.50 6, " 9.00 6, " 6.00 

Hat 1, " 1.00 

Caps 3, " .75 1, " .25 

Collars 1, " .10 2, " .25 

Neckties 1, " .25 1, " .25 1, " .10 

Suspenders 1> " .25 

Handkerchiefs 6, " .25 

Stockings 4, " .40 15, " 1.50 6, " .60 

Total $5.20 $25.75 $12.95 



158 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

Mother, age 36. 
3 waists, cotton, home-made, lOJ yds., at .05; trimmings, .15. .$0.68 

1 skirt, calico, 6 yds. at .05 30 

2 petticoats, cotton, 10 yds. at .08 . 80 

1 stockings 10 

2 shoes * 3.00 

Total $4.88 

Daughter, age 17. 
1 coat $ 3.00 

1 dress, lawn 6 yds. at .25; trimmings, .10, (home-made).. 1.60 
6 dresses, calico, 42 yds. at .06; trimmings .60, (home-made) 3.12 

2 petticoats, cotton, 8 yds. at .08, (home-made) 64 

2 drawers (made from flour sacks) 

2 corsets 1.50 

1 hat ( summer ) 3.50 

10 stockings 2.00 

3 shoes 4.50 

Total $19.86 

Daughter, age 3. 

1 coat $2.00 

2 dresses, flannel, 5 yds. at .08; trimmings, .10 (other dresses 

and all underwear made from flour sacks ) 50 

1 hat (summer) 50 

2 stockings 20 

6 shoes 6.00 

Total $9.20 

The average value of food consumed per week per 
man unit for the year covered was $1.60. The menu 
for 2 days (May 23 and 24, 1909) was obtained and 
is as follows: 

Sunday. 
Breakfast: Pork steak, bread, coffee, condensed milk. 
Dinner: Soup (made of meat, potatoes, cabbage, and bologna), 

bread, cofl'ee, condensed milk. 
Supper: Soup left from dinner. 

Monday. 
Breakfast: Bread, coffee, condensed milk, soup from day before. 
Dinner: Bread, coffee, condensed milk. 

Supper: Soup from the day before. 



APPENDIX 159 

The sonp which, entered so largely into the diet 
was made in a large iron pot. It is the custom to 
make enough to last several days, and to replenish it 
whenever the pot becomes empty. All kinds of meats 
and vegetables are put into it. The bread is a very 
soggy composition made of iSour and corn meal. 
As the price of flour goes up, more corn meal and 
less flour is used in making it. On one of the visits 
to the family for information the oldest boy came 
home from work for his dinner. He sat down to 
the table, which was covered with oilcloth, and his 
dinner consisted of bread and coffee. 



Family No. 108. 

This family is Polish. They have been in this 
country 12 years. The husband is the only worker, 
but his earnings are far above the average. The 
membership, and the age, occupation, and earnings 
of the members of the family are as follows : 

Memlership and income of Family No, 108, 1908-9, 

Yearly Paid to 

earnings. family. 

Husband, age 40, slubber $527.80 $527.80 

Wife, age 40, housekeeper 

First child, age 10, at school (male) * 

Second child, age 5, at home (male) 

Third child, age 4, at home (female) 

Fourth child, age 1, at home (male) 

Two lodgers (lodging at $3 per month each) .... 72.00 72.00 

Total ., .$599.80 $599.80 

The family has five rooms in a tenement house in 
which four families live. Four of the rooms are on 



160 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

tlie second floor, and tlie fifth, one is an attic room 
on the third floor. The house is very dirty, and the 
kitchen floor was covered with cigarette stubs. The 
furnishings are very poor and consist of only 
the most necessary articles. The kitchen, which is 
also the general living room, is furnished with a 
table, stove, chairs, and a few cheap pictures. The 
bedrooms contain nothing but the beds and bedding. 

The family was in good healtb during the year, 
the baby being the only member that was sick. It 
had the summer complaint. The amusements of the 
family are of the simplest kind. 

The annual expenditures of the family were slB 
follows : 

Expenditures of Family No, 108, 1908-9. 

Item. Amount. Item. Amount. 

Food $361.40 Church contributions . . .$ 52.00 

Rent 91.00 Stove repair 7.50 

Clothing 73.31 Sundries 13.00 

Fuel 13.00 Bedstead 4.00 

Light 6.25 Mattress 2.00 

Tobacco 13.00 Carfare 1.00 

Drinks 52.00 Poll ta^ 2.00 

Medicine 2.00 ■ 

Doctor's bills 4.00 Total $697.46 

The children picked np a large part of the fuel, 
so that the expense for this was only $13. The ex- 
penses exceeded the income by $97.66. This was 
met by drawing from the bank money that they had 
saved in former years. The amount of their sav- 
ings conld not be learned. 

The clothing purchased for the different members 
of the family is shown in the following table : 



APPENDIX 161 

Expenditures of Family No. 108 for clothing, 1908-9. 

Father, age 40. Son, age 10. Son, age 5 

Trousers 

Shirts, white 1, cost $ 0.50 

Shirts, colored 4, 

Overalls 4, 

Underwear, shirts . . 2, 
Underwear, drawers . . 2, 

Shoes 3, 

Hat 1, 

Caps 

Collars 2, 

Neckties 1, 

Stockings 

Barbering 

Waists (made at 
home ) 

Total $19.40 $17.50 $7.80 

Mother, age 40. 
1 coat $ 5.50 

1 waist, white 1.00 

2 waists, calico, home-made, 8 yds. at .07 ; trimmings, .20 76 

1 skirt, wool 7.00 

1 dress, calico, home-made, 9 yds. at .08; trimmings, .10 82 

1 hat (summer) 3.00 

2 stockings 25 

2 shoes 3.00 

4 handkerchiefs 20 





4, cost $ 2.40 




:$ 0.50 










2.00 


4, 


(( 


.80 




2.00 










1.00 










1.00 










6.00 


8, 


ct 


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6, cost $6.00 


1.00 












2, 


t( 


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2, " .50 


.25 










.25 










.40 






.50 


.50 


5.00 












4, 


<c 


.80 


4, " .80 



Total $21.53 

Daughter, age 4, 

4 dresses, calico, 16 yds. at .17; trimmings, .20 $1.32 

12 stockings 1.20 

3 shoes 1.50 



Total $4.02 

Daughter, age 1. 

4 dresses, calico, 12 yds. at .08 $1.16 

4 stockings 40 

3 shoes , 1.50 



Total $3.06 

X menu for five meals was obtained and is as fol- 
lows : 



162 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

May 19, 1909. 
Breakfast: Pork chops, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Beef soup, potatoes, bread. 

Supper: Pork chops, bread, butter, coffee. 

May 20, 1909. 
Breakfast: Pork chops, sausage, bread, butter, coffee. 
Dinner: Beef soup, potatoes, bread. 

The grocery account for as long a period as could 
be obtained is as follows : 



store account of Family "No, 108 for one week in May, 1909, 



May 12 



13 



14 



17 



First Store. 

Pickles $0.02 

Flour 04 

Beef 14 

Pork 16 

Beef 19 

Eggs ' .13 

Pie 10 

Cheese 08 

Cookies 05 



18 



19 



Cheese 
Pork . 



Salt 



04 
,13 
.15 
.05 
.19 
.12 
.15 
.13 
.09 



Frankfurters . . 

Sausage 

Pressed ham . . 

Beef 

Cakes 05 

12 

Beef 10 

Frankfurters 12 

Bologna 12 

Cookies 05 

Pressed ham 13 

Barley 05 

Beef 10 

Cookies 05 

Pressed ham 13 

Frankfurters 12 

Flour 04 

Beef 08 



May 12 



Second Store. 

Eggs 

Sugar 



.$0.' 



Crackers 

Tobacco 

Vinegar 

Cakes , 

Milk 

Ammonia water . . 



Crackers . 
Cucumbers 
Cabbage . . 

Soap 

Bread 



Crackers 



Soda ... 
Cakes . . 
Crackers 



Eggs 



06 
.06 
.04 
.05 
.05 
.02 
.05 
.07 
.05 
.15 
.05 
.07 
.07 
.04 
.05 
.05 
.02 
.05 
.05 
.05 
.06 
.05 
.06 
.05 
.05 
.09 
.14 
.05 
.05 



Total 



$1.69 



Total $3.22 



APPENDIX 163 

The store accounts cover a period of 1 week at 
two stores. A total of $4.91 was expended for food 
at the two stores. During the same period other 
articles were purchased as follows: Coffee, 35 
cents; milk, 49 cents; flour, $1; butter, 30 cents; a 
total of $2.14, making with the $4.91 expended at 
the stores a total expenditure of $7.05 for the week. 
The average value of food consumed per week per 
man unit for the year covered was $1.99. 

F. Variations in Family Incomes. 

A most interesting phase of the individual family 
problem was touched upon in the Federal study. 
lUnemployment has been frequently discussed, as an 
abstract problem, and it has been the subject of 
many printed pages. Then, too, the general effect 
of unemployment upon poverty, misery and the like 
has been dealt with in such books as Devine's 
Misery and Its Cause.^ Yet unemployment as a 
problem in the income of an individual family has 
come in for too little attention. Among the excel- 
lent statistics appearing in the Federal study are a 
number of tables of the income of individual fami- 
lies by weeks. Many of the instances show the most 
astonishing variations. For example: 

« E. T. Devine, Misery and Its Causes, The MacmiHan Company, 
New York, 1909. 



164 FINANCING THE WAGE-EARNEE'S FAMILY 



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APPENDIX 167 

VI. Making Both Ends Meet. 

Opinion may well differ regarding the value of 
general estimates of the amounts necessary for the 
maintenance of a subsistence or a fair standard. A 
thoughtful reader of these individual family budgets 
is forced to admit that the amounts which they al- 
low for the various items are in most cases pain- 
fully small. Here the item of food assumes fair 
proportions; there fifty or sixty dollars are spent 
for recreation; again the cost of clothing reaches 
$150; yet, on the whole the smallness and not the 
largeness of the items is impressive. 

To those members of the middle income class, 
who estimate yearly income in thousands of 
dollars, incomes of hundreds of dollars seem insig- 
nificant, yet it remains true that among the wage- 
earners engaged in American industry, not more 
than one in ten has an annual income of $1,000, and 
over, while fully half fall below $600. The vast 
majority of wage-earners must therefore estimate 
their incomes in terms of hundreds. The individ- 
ual budgets, cited in the appendix, which might be 
duplicated at will, in tens of thousands of instances, 
bespeak eloquently the economic struggle of those 
who do the work of the modern industrial world. 



INDEX 



Adult Males: 
Wages of, 126. 

Budgets, Economic changes, 67. 
Budget Making: 
Family, 6. 

Clothing : 

Fair Standard of Living, 74. 

Minimum Standard of Living, 
65. 
Cost of a Standard of Living, 82. 

Summary, 96. 
Crises : 

Effect on Income, 28. 

Efficiency Standard of Living: 

Necessity for, 122. 
Expenditure and Family size, 50. 
Expenditures : 

By Income Group, 51. 

Objects of, 49, 51. 

Fair Standard of Living: 

Cost of, 89. 

Defined, 70. 
Family Budgets: 

Analysis of Individual, 45. 

Compilation of, 47. 
Family Income: 

Contribution of women and 
children, 108. 

Distribution of, 113. 

Percentage from various 
sources. 111. 



Family Income — confd. 
Sources of, 34, 99. 
Standard of Living and^ 128. 
Family Size: 

Expenditures and, 60. 
Food: 
Menu for Fair Standard of Liv- 
ing, 72. 
Menu for Minimum Standard, 

64. 
Needs of Various Persons for, 

59. 
Requirements in a Standard of 
Living, 58. 

Goods : 

As a Basis for Study, 54. 

Housing . 

Fair Standard of Living, 73. 

Income : 

Adult Males, 101. 

California, 104. 

Compared with Standards of 
Living, 106. 

Lawrence, 103. 

Little Falls, 103. 

Manufacturing, 101. 

New Jersey, 103. 

Steel Industry, 102. 
Contribution of Women to, 33. 
Family, Sources of. 111. 
In Kind, 100. 
Problems of, 11-12. 



169 



170 



INDEX 



Income — confd. 

Standard of Living and, 98. 

Standard of Living, 
Fall River, 116. 

Sources of Family, 34, 99. 

Supplementary Sources of, 32. 

Unemployment and, 105. 
Income and Expenditure Con- 
trasted, 37. 
Income and Living Standards, 13. 
Industry : 

Modern Organization of, 16. 

Males : 

Income of, 101. 
Machinery : 

Effect on Income, 26. 
Minimum Standard of Living: 

Cost of, 62. 

Elements in, 63. 

Overwork : 

Effect on Income, 20. 

Railroads : 

Opportunities for Advance- 
ment on, 14. 

Sickness and Accident, 22. 
Standard of Living: 

As Shown in Family Budgets, 
45. 

Averaging Income and Ex- 
penditure, 47. 

Chap in. Study of, 61. 

Clothing, Minimum Standard, 
65. 

Cost of, 82, 124. 

Cost of. Summary, 96. 

Determination of Efficiency, 
124. 



Standard of Living — confd. 
Effects of low, 38. 
Elements in, 55. 
Estimates of, 44. 
Expenditures : 

By Income Group, 51. 

Family Size and, 50. 
Fair : 

Clothing, 74. 

Cost of, 89. 

Housing, 73. 

Menu for, 72. 

Requirements of, 71. 
Fair or Normal Standard, 

Definition, 70. 
Family Income and, 128. 
Federal Study of, 62. 
Food: 

Family Needs, 

Computation of, 60. 

Menu for Minimum Stand- 
ard, 64. 

Requirements, 58. 
Forms, 55. 

Goods as a Basis for, 54. 
Income and, 13, 98, 116. 
Income of Adult Males and, 

106. 
Meaning of, 44. 
Methods of Determining, 53. 
Minimum Cost of, 82. 
Minimum, Defined, 63. 
Necessity for Efficiency, 122. 
Need for Local Investigation. 

130. 
Objects of Expenditure, 49 -5 L 
Specific Items in, 67. 
Studies of, 46. 
The Family Standard, 119. 
Underfeeding, 39. 
Value of goods, Standard, 70. 



INDEX 



171 



Subsistence : 

Minimum of, 36. 
Supplementary Income Sources, 
32. 

Unemployment : 

Effect on Income, 26-27. 

Income and, 105. 
Underfeeding : 

Extent of, 39. 
Chicago, 40. 



Wage Earner : 

Dilemma of the, 41, 121. 

Problem of the, 129. 
Wages : 

Forces determining, 17-19. 

Adult Males, 126. 
Women : 

Contributing to Family 
come, 38, 108. 
Workingman's Dilemma, 41. 



In- 



